iLIBRARYOFCOiNGRESSj 



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i UNITED STATES 0^ AMERICA, f 1 



X 



N. 



THE GREEK WORD 

AION AIONIOS, 

TRANSLATED 



IN THE 



HOLY BIBLE, 



SHOWN TO DENOTE LIMITED DURATION, 



BY 

Rev. John Wesley Hanson, A. M, 

£dztor of THE NEW COVENANT. 



CHICAGO: 

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. 

9^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1375 
BY J. W. HANSON, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington D. C. 




K. T. SMITH Print, 2Sb Wabash Ave., CHICAGO. 



PREFACE. 

The verbal pivot on which swings the question, Does the Bible 
teach the doctrine of Endless Punishment ? is the word Aion and 
its derivatives and reduplications. The author of this treatise has 
endeavored to put within brief compass the essential facts pertaining 
to the history and use of the word, and he thinks he has conclusively 
shown that it affords no support whatever to the erroneous doctrine. 
It will generally be conceded that the tenet referred to is not con- 
tained in the Scriptures if the meaning of endless duration does not 
reside in the controverted word. The reader is implored to exam- 
ine the evidence presented, as the author trusts it has been collected, 
with a sincere desire to learn the truth. 



AlON-AlONIOS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is a prevalent idea that the words ''^Eternal, Everlastings For- 
tver^' etc.y in the English Bible, signify endless duration. This essay 
aims to prove the popular impression erroneous. The inquiry will 
be pursued in a manner that shall be satisfactory to the scholar, and 
also enable the ordinary reader to apprehend the facts, so that both 
the learned and the unlearned may be able to see the subject in a 
light that shall relieve the Scriptures of seeming to teach a doctrine 
that blackens the character of God, and plunges a deadly sting into 
the believing heart. 

The original Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek, by seventy 
scholars, and hence called " The Septuagint," B. C. 200 — 300,^ and 
the Hebrew word Olam is, in almost all cases, translated Aion Awn- 
tos etc., (At'u'v, ACu'vLos,) so that the two words may be regarded as 
synonymous with each other. In the New Testament the same words 
Aion and its derivatives, are the original Greek of the English words, 
Eternal, Everlasting ^ Forever, etc.. So that when we ascertain the 
real meaning of Aion, we have settled the sense of those English 
words in which the doctrine of Endless Punishment is erroneously 
taught. It is not going too far to say that if the Greek Ai'on-Aion- 
ios does not denote endless duration, then endless punishment is not 
taught m the Bible. We proceed to show that the sense of inter- 
minable duration does not reside in the word. 

Three avenues are open to us in which to pursue this important 
investigation. I. Etymology, II. Lexicography, III. Usage, 

Our first appeal will be to Etymology. 

^z) Prideaux, Connection, Vol. Ill Part ix. Book x. 



Aiam — Aidmos, 



I. ETYMOLOGY. 



We are s.^are that notfaing is more unsafe and treachenras dun 
the gnidance of etymology. An ounce of usage is worth a pound of 
it Etymology is theory, usage is fact. For instance, our common 
word present is compounded of png and vemo, to come or go before, 
and once it had that meaning, but it has long since lost it in common 
usage, in which it now ~e = -s to hinder. Suppose two thousand 
years hence some one e'. i I'.i endeavor to prove that in the year 1875 
the word prevent mear. : : : r d before. He could establish his position 
by the etymology of the - ::d. bat he would be wholly wrong, as 
would appear by universe, -isi^e in our current literature- So that 
if we agree that the e.yr::;^:gy of Aian indicates eternity to have 
been its original meaning, it by no means follows that it had that force 
in Greek literature. But its derivation does not point in that di- 
rection. 

LZXNZ? ' 

Sajrs that it comes from Ad (to breathe) which suggests the idea 
of indefinite duration. He says : It was transferred from breathing to 
collection, or multitude of times. From which proper signification 
again have been produced tfiose by which the ancients have described 
either age (cssmm)^ or eternity ( csUmiUUem^) or the age of man (horn- 
ims eetaUm.) Commenting on Lennep's derivation of the word. 
Rev. E. S. Goodwin, says :' " It would signify a multitude of peri- 
ods or times united to each other, duration indefinitely continued. 
Its proper force, in reference to duration, seems to be more that of 
uniBterrupted duration than otherwise ; a term of which the dura- 
tion is continuous as long as it lasts, but which may be com- 
pleted and finished, as age, dispensation, saeculum, in a general 
sense. * Mr. Goodwin entertained the theory that the word is from 
the verb aid^ its active participle converted into a substantive. 

aiostotle's ZrVilOLOGY. 

But this e:; ~:.:rr is not the popular one, Aristotle,* the 
great Greek Ph :s :; .e:. explained the derivation as a combination 

« "^~-:::^^----^-=-r•^::-•• 



Etymology, 7 

of two Greek words (aei on) which signify always existing. As there 
is a great deal of controversy on this famous passage, we will give 

THREE TRANSLATIONS OF ARISTOTLE. 

I. Dr. Pond*: In describing the highest heaven, the residence 
of the gods, Aristotle says : " It is therefore evident that there is 
neither space, nor time, nor vacuum beyond. Wherefore the things 
there are not adapted by nature to exist in place ; nor does time 
make them grow old ; neither under the highest (heaven) is 
there any change of any one of these things, they being placed 
beyond it ; but unchangeable, passionless — they having the best, even 
the self-sufficient life — they continue through all aiona (eterni- 
ty.) For indeed, the word itself according to the ancients^ divinely ex- 
pressed this. For the period which comprehends the time of every 
one's life, beyond which, according to nature^ nothing exists, is called 
his aion j (eternity.) And for the same reason, the period of the 
whole heaven, even the infinite time of all things^ and the period 
comprehending that infinity is aion^ eternity., deriving its name from 
aei^ einaiy always being, immortal and divine." 

Dr. J. R. Boise,^ Professor of Greek in the University of Chi- 
cago: " Time is a notation of motion; and motion without a phys- 
ical body is impossible. But, beyond the heaven, it has been shown 
that there is neither a body, nor can there be. It is plain, therefore, 
that there is neither space, nor void, nor time beyond. Wherefore, the 
things there are not by nature in space, nor does time make them 
grow old, nor is there any change in any one of those things placed 
beyond the outermost sweep (or current) ; but, unchangeable and 
without passion, having the best and most sufficient life, they contin- 
ue through all eternity (aion) j for this name (i. e., aim) has been 
divinely uttered by the ancients. For the definite period (to telos)^ 
which embraces the time of the life of each individual, to whom, ac- 
cording to nature, there can be nothing beyond, has been called each 
one's eternity (aion). And, by parity of reasoning, the definite pe- 
riod also of the entire heaven, even the definite period embracing 
the infinite time of all things and infinity, is an eternity (aion), im- 



(5). Christian Union. 

(6). Chicago Tribune, quoted by Hon. C. H. Reed. 



S Aion — Aibinos. 

mortal and divine, having received the appellation (eternity, aion) 
from the fact that it exists always ( apo ton aei einai). 

Dr. Edward Beecher -? " The limit of the whole heaven, and 
the limit enclosing the universal system, is the divine and immortal 
existing (aei on) (God) deriving his name Aion from his ever existing 
(aei dn.y Dr. B. adds : " From the time of Homer to Plato and 
Aristotle, about five centuries, the word aion is used by poets and 
historians alongside of various compounds of aei ; but it is never 
spelled as if it were a compound of aei^ for the compounds of aei 
retain the diphthong «?/, but aion drops the e. There is a verb aid — 
to breathe, to live. The passage of Aristotle in which his etymology 
occurs, has been mistranslated^ for it does not give the etymology of the 
abstract idea eternity^ but of the concrete idea God, as an ever-exist- 
ing person, from whom all other personal beings derived existence 
and life. What Aristotle has been supposed to assert of aion^ in the 
sense of eternity, he asserts of aion in the sense of God, a living and 
divine person. That the word aion in classic Greek sometimes denotes 
God is distinctly stated in Henry Stephens' great lexicon, (Paris 
edition,) and the passage referred to in Sophocles (Herac. 900,) fully 
authorizes his statement. In that passage Jupiter is called ^ Aion, 
(the living God) the Son of Kronos.' Moreover, the whole context 
of Aristotle proves that he is speaking of the great immovable first 
mover of the universe, the Aion, immortal and divine." * * * 

This passage from Aristotle is obscure, and if he were author- 
ity, it would not settle the question of the meaning of the word. If 
we adopt this theory, we may claim that aion had the primary mean- 
ing of continuous existence, such being the signification of aei and on, 
but there is no warrant even in such an origin for ascribing to it du- 
ration without end. But Aristotle does not say or intimate that the 
word had the meaning of eternity in his day, nor does his statement 
of its derivation prove that it had that meaning then. On the con- 
trary, Aristotle's use of the word, as we shall hereafter show, clearly 
proves that it had no such meaning in his mind, even if it is com- 
pounded of aei and on. 

AEI 

The word aei from which aion is claimed to grow, is found eight 
times, (perhaps more, though I have not found it oftener) in the New- 
Testament, and in no one instance does it mean endless. Mark xv : 

(7). Christian Union. A series of remarkable papers wss published in the Christiaa 
Union in 1873-4, by Edward Beecher, D. D., on the '" History of Future Retribution." 



Etymology, 9 

■8 ; Acts, vii : 51 ; 2 Cor. iv : 11 ; vi : 10 , Titus, 1:12; Heb. in : 
10; I Pet. iii : 15 ; 2 Pet. i : 12. I give two instances. Tiie mul- 
titude desired Pilate to release a prisoner, Mark xv : 8 : "as he had 
ever done with them." Heb. iii : 10 : " They do always err in their 
heart." An endless duration growing out of a word used thus, would 
be a curiosity. It is alway, or always, or ever, in each text. Liddell 
and Scott give more than fifty compounds of aei. 

Concerning Aristotle's use of the word in his famous sentence, 
** Life, an ^z'^;z continuous and eternal," it is enough to say that if 
4iidn intrinsically meant endless, Aristotle never would have sought to 
strengthen the meaning by adding " continuous " and " eternal," any 
more than one would say, God has an eternity, continuous and end- 
less. He has a life, an existence, an ai'on endless, just as man's aion 
on earth is limited ; just as Idumea's smoke in the Old Testament is 
aidnios. Nor, had Aristotle considered ai'on to mean eternity, would 
he have said in this very passage : " the time of the life of each indi- 
vidual has been called his aion.'''' 

Cremer, Liddell and Scott, Donncgan, and Henry Stephens adopt 
the Aristotleian origin of the word. Grimm rejects it, and Robinson 
in his latest editions gives both etymologies without deciding between 
them. Stephens says: "Aristotle, and after him many other philos- 
ophers, as Plotinus and Proclus, introduced the etymology of ai'on 
from aei., and thus added the idea of eternity to the word." 

But we have shown that the famous passage in Aristotle refers to 
God, (apo ton aei einai) and not to abstract duration. We have 
shown that aet is used eight times in the New Testament, and not in 
the sense of endless, once. We shall prove that Aristotle himself 
uniformly used the word in the sense of limited duration, and under 
the head of Classic Usage will hereafter prove that at the time the 
Old Testament was rendered into Greek, this was the only meaning 
the word had with any Greek writer. If aei on., is its origin, which 1 
is more than doubtful, it cannot mean more than continuous exist- j 
ence, the precise length to be determined by accompanying words. ! 
Adopt either derivation, and indefinite duration is the easy and 
natural meaning of the word, if we suffer ourselves to be guided by 
its etymology. Eternity can only be expressed by it when it is ac- 
companied by other words, denoting endless duration, or by the name 
of Deity. 

All will agree that words may change their meaning, and there- 
fore that etymology is an uncertain guide. If etymology point in 
one direction, and usage in another, the former must yield ; but il 



V 



lo Aion — Aidnios 

both utter one fact, each reinforces and strengthens the other. ThtS 
we have illustrated by the etymolog}' of ' prevent.' Hundreds of 
words teach the same truth. Words start out with a certain meaning, 
and change it in process of time. If aion really meant eternity when 
it was first pronounced, it would not follow that it has this meaning 
now. That it had not that meaning at first would not hinder it from 
being thus used subsequently. Etymology proves nothing one way 
or the other, its evidence is but prima facie j usage is the only de- 
cisive authority. But etymology gives no warrant for applying the 
idea of eternity to the word. 

THE PLATONIC DERIVATIONS. 

We have proceeded on the ground that Aristotle's etymology is- 
authoritative. But nothing is further from the truth. The scholarship 
of to-day, possessed by an average educated philologist, is far more 
competent to trace this or any Greek word to its real source, 
than Plato or Aristotle was able to do. In his analysis of Plato's 
Cratylus,* Grote accurately observes of Plato's etymologies : 
" Though sometimes reasonable enough, they are in a far greater 
number of instances forced, arbitrary, and fanciful. The transitions 
of meaning imagined, and the structural transformations of words, 
are alike strange and violent. Such is the light in which these Pla- 
tonic etymologies appear to a modern critic. But such was not the 
light in which they appeared either to the ancient Platonists or critics 
earlier than the last century. The Platonists even thought them full 
of mysterious and recondite wisdom. So complete has been the rev- 
olution of opinion that the Platonic etymologies are now treated by 
most critics as too absurd to have been seriously intended by Plato, 
even as conjectures. It is called 'a valuable discovery of modern 
times ' (so Schleiermacher terms it) that Plato meant most of them 
as mere parody and caricature." 

The character of Aristotle as an etymologist is thus stated by 
Grote : " Xor are they more abi^urd than many of the etymologies 
proposed by Aristotle." A slender hook this, whereon to hang such 
a doctrine as that of the immortal wo of countless millions of souls. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

The conclusions to which any judicial mind must arrive are these : 
I, It is uncertain from what source \.\\q "NOid Aion sprang; 2, It is 
of no consequence how it originated ; 3, Aristotle's opinion is not 

(8) Volume 2, pp. 500-550.* 



Etymology. • ii 

authority ; and 4, It is probable that he was not defining the word, 
but was alluding to that being whose aion^ or existence is continu- 
ous and eternal. That he did not understand that aion signified eter- 
nity, we shall demonstrate from his uniform use of the word, in the 
sense of limited duration. And we find no reason in its etymology 
for giving it the sense of endless duration. And if it did thus orig- 
inate, it does not afford a particle of proof that it was subsequently 
used with that meaning. 



II. LEXICOGRAPHY AND THE CRITICS. 

We next appeal to Lexicography. Now lexicography must always 
be consulted, especially on disputed words, cum grano salts. A 
theologian, in his definitions, is quite certain to shade technical 
words with his own belief, and lean one way or the other, according 
to his own predilections. Unconsciously and necessarily the lexi- 
cographer who has a bias in favor of any doctrine will tincture his 
definitions with his own idiosyncracies. Very few have sat judicially, 
and given meanings to words with reference to their exact usage; 
so that one must examine dictionaries concerning any word whose 
meaning is disputed, with the same care that should be used in ref- 
■crence to any subject on which men differ. 

With this thought in mind let us consult such of the lexicons as 
have fallen under our notice, and also some of the Biblical critics who 
have explored the word. 

AUTHORITIES. 

The oldest lexicographer, Hesychius, (A. D. 400 — 600,) defines 
aion thus: The life of ?nan, the time of life.'' At this early 
date no theologian had yet imported into the word the meaning of 
endless duration. It retained only the sense it had in the classics, and 
in the Bible. 

Theodoret^ (A. D. 300 — 400) ''^Aibn is not any existing thing, but 
an interval denoti7ig time^ sometimes infinite when spoken of God, 
sometimes proportioned to the duration of the creation, and some- 
times to the life of man." 

John of Damascus (A. D. 750,) says, " i, The life of every man 
is called aion. ' ' 3, The whole duration or life of this world is 
called aim. 4, The life after the resurrection is called ' the aion to 
come.' " 

But in the sixteenth century Phavorinus was compelled to notice 
an addition, which subsequently to the time of the famous Council 
of 544 had been grafted on the word. He says : " Aion^ time, also 
life, also habit, or way of life. Aion is also the eternal and endless as 
IT SEEMS TO THE THEOLOGIAN," Thcologians had succeeded in 

(Q)Theodoret, in Mifne. Vol. IV, page 400. 



Lexicogaphy. 1 3 

using the word in the sense of endless, and Phavorinus was forced 
to recognize their usage of it and his phraseology shows conclusively 
enough that he attributed to theologians the authorship of that use of 
the word. Alluding to this definition, Rev. Ezra S. Goodwin, one 
of the ripest scholars and profoundest critics, says,^° " Here I strongly 
suspect is the true secret brought to light of the origin of the sense 
of eternity in ai'on. The theologian first thought he perceived it, or else 
he placed it there. The theologian keeps it there, now. And the 
theologian will probably retain it there longer than any one else. 
Hence it is that those lexicographers who assign eternity as one of 
the meanings of aion uniformly appeal for proofs to either theolog- 
ical, Hebrew, or Rabbinical Greek, or some species of Greek subse- 
quent to the age of the Seventy, if not subsequent to the age of the 
Apostles, so far as I can ascertain." 

The second definition by Phavorinus is extracted literally from the 
" Etymologicon Magnum " of the ninth or tenth century. This gives 
us the usage from the fourth to the sixteenth century, and shows 
us that, if the word meant endless at the time of Christ, it must 
have changed from limited duration in the classics, to unlimited du- 
ration, and then back again, at the dates above specified ! 

From the sixteenth century onward, the word has been defined as 
used to denote all lengths of duration from brief to endless. We re- 
cord here such definitions as we have found. 

^^5/ .'(German definitions) " ^/^;^, duration, epoch, long time, eter- 
nity, memory of man, life-time, life, age of man. Aidnios, continual,, 
always enduring, long continued, eternal." 

Hedericus : " An age, eternity, an age as if always being ; time of 
man's life, in the memory of men, (wicked men, New Testament,) the 
spinal marrow. Ai'onios, eternal, everlasting, continual." 

Schleusner: "Any space of time whether longer or shorter, past, 

present or future, to be determined by the persons or thitigs spoken of^ 

and the scope of the subjects; the life or age of man. Aionios, a definite 

and long period of time, that is, Z-long enduring, but still defifiite period 
of tifne?"* 

Passow: '''Aidnios, long continued, eternal, everlasting, in the 
classics." 

Grove: "Eternity; an age, life, duration, continuance of time; a 
revolution of ages, a dispensation of Providence, this world or life ; 



(ic^Christian Examiner, Vol. X- Dace ^7. 



14 Aion — Aidnios, 

the world or life to come. Aidnios, eternal, immortal, perpetual, for- 
mer, past, ancient.^' 

Donnegan: " Time ; space of time ; life time and life ; the ordinary 
period ot man's life; the age of man ; man's estate; a long period of 
time ; eternity ; the spinal marrow. Aidnios, of long duration, lasting, 
eternal, permanent." 

Ewing: "Duration, finite or infinite ; a period of duration, past or 
future ; an age ; duration of the world ; ages of the world ; human 
life in this world, or the next ; our manner of life in the world ; an 
age of divine dispensation, the ages, generally reckoned three, 
that before law, that under the law, and that under the Messiah. 
Ai'onios, (from preceding,) ages of the world, periods of the dispensa- 
tions since the world began." 

Schrevelius: *'An age, a long period of time ; indefinite duration^ 
time, whether longer or shorter, past, present or future ; also, in the 
New Testament, the wicked men of the age, life, the life of man. 
Aidnios, of long duration, lasting, sometimes everlasting, sometimes 
lasting through life SiS^Bfurnusm Latin." 

Dr. Taylor^ who wrote the Hebrew Bible three times with his own 
hand, says of Olam, (^ Greek Ai'on) it signifies a duration which is con- 
cealed, as being of an unknown or great length. "It signifies eterni- 
ty, not from the proper force of the luord, but when the sense of the plaee 
or the nature of the subject requires it^ as God and his attributes?"* 

Pickering: Almost identical with Schrevelius in his definitions. 

Hinks: "A period of time ; an age, an after time, eternity. Ai'onioSy 
lasting, eternal, of old, since the beginning." 

Lutz: "An age, time, eternity. Aionios, durable, eternal." 

Macknight: (Scotch Presbyterian.) " These words being ambiguous, 
are always to be understood according to the nature and circumstances to 
which they are applied''* He thinks the words sustain endless punish- 
ment, but adds : "At the same time I must be so candid as to ac- 
knowledge that the use of these terms, forever, eternal and everlast- 
ing, in other passages of Scripture, shows \}[vzXthey who understand these 
words in a limited sense, when applied to punishment, put no forced in- 
terpretation upon them?"* 

Wright: " Time, age, life-time, period, revolution of ages, dispen- 
sation of Providence, present world, or life, world to come, eternity. 
Aionios, eternal, ancient." 

Robinson: "Life, also an age, that is an indefinite long period of 
time, perpetuity, ever, forever, eternity, forever, without end, to the 
remotest time, forever and ever, of old, trom everlasting, the world. 



Lexicography, 15 

present or future, this world and the next, present world, men of this 
world, world itself, advent of Messiah. Aidnios, perpetual, everlast- 
ing, eternal, chiefly spoken of future time, ancient." 

Jones: "An everlasting age, eternal, forever, a period of time, age, 
life, the present world, or life ; the Jewish dispensation ; a good de- 
mon, angel as supposed to exist forever. . . Aidnios, everlasting, 
ancient." 

Schweighauser and Valpe)\/ substantially agree. 

Madaine-, in his Mosheim: ''''Aion or (Bon among the ancients, was 
used to signify the age of man^ or the duration of human life. " 

Cruden: "The words eternal, everlasting, forever, are sometimes 
taken for a long time, and are not always to be understood strictly, 
for example, ' Thou shalt be our guide from this time forth, even for- 
ever,' that is, during our whole life." 

Alex. Campbell: "Its radical idea is indefinite duration." 

Whitby: "Nothing is more common and familiar in Scripture than 
to render a thorough and irreparable vastation, whose effects and 
signs should be still remaining, by the word aidnios, which we render 
eternal." Hammond^ Benson^ and Gilpin^ in notes on Jude 7, say 
the same. Liddell and Scott also give to ai'on in the poets the sense 
of life and lifetime, as also an age or generation. 

Pearce (in Matt, vii : 33) says : "The Greek word ai'on seems to sig- 
nify age here, as it often does in the New Testament, and according 
to its most proper signification^ Clarke^ Wakefield^ Boothroyd^ Simp- 
son^ Lindsey, Mardon, Acton, agree. So do Locke, Hammond, Le Clerc^ 
Beausobre, Lenfant, Doddridge, Paulus, Kenrick and Olshausen. 

T. Southivood Smith: "Sometimes it signifies the term of human 
life ; at other times an age, or dispensation of Providence. Its most 
common signification is that of age or dispensation." 

Scarlett: "That aidnion does not mean endless or eternal, may ap- 
pear from considering that no adjective can have a greater force than 
the noun from which it is derived. If a:/^/^ means age (which none 
either will or can deny) then aidnion must mean age-lasting, or duration 
through the age or ages to which the thing spoken of relates." 

Even Professor Stuart is obliged to say: "The most common and 
appropriate meaning of ai'on in the New Testament, and the one 
which corresponds with the Hebrew word olam, and which therefore 
deserves the first rank in regard to order, I put down first : an indefi^ 
nite period of time; time without limitation; ever, forever, time with- 
out end, eternity, all in relation to future time. The different shades 
by which the word is rendered, depend on the object with which aibnios 



1 6 Aton — Aionios. 

is associated^ or to which it has relation, rather than to any difference 
in the real meaning of the word. " 

J. W. Haley * says: "The Hebrew word *olam' rendered 'forever,* 
does not imply the metaphysical idea of absolute endlessness, but a 
period of indefinite length, as Rambach says, a very long time, the 
end of which is hidden from us." 01am or olim is the Hebrew 
equivalent of aidn. 

Dr. Edward Beecher^^ remarks, "It commonly means merely con- 
tinuity of action ... all attempts to set forth eternity as the 
original and primary sense of aidn are at war with the facts of the 
Greek language for five centuries, in which it denoted life and its 
derivative senses, and the sense eternity was ufiknown?' And he also 
says, what is the undoubted fact, "that the original sense of aidn is 
not eternity. . . . It is conceded on all hafids that this (life) was 
originally the general use of the word. In the Paris edition of Hen- 
ry Stephens' Lexicon it is affirmed emphatically "that life, or the 
space of life, is the primitive sense of the word, and that it is always 
so used by Homer, Hesiod, and the old poets ; also by Pindar and 
the tragic writers, as well as by Herodotus and Xenophon." "Per- 
taining to the world to come," is the sense given to "These shall gc 
away into everlasting punishment," by Prof. Tayler Lewis, who adds ^' 
"The preacher in contending with the Universalist and the Res- 
torationist, would commit an error, and it may be suffer a failure in 
his argument, should he lay the whole stress of it on the etymological 
or historical significance of the words aidn^ aionios, and attempt to 
prove that of themselves they necessarily carry the meaning of end- 
less duration. ' These shall go away into the restraint, imprisonment 
of the world to come,' is all we can etymologically or exegetically 
make of the word in this passage." 

THE TRUE IDEA. 

Undoubtedly the definition given by Schleusner is the accurate 
one, 'Duration determined by the subject to which it is applied.' Thus 
it only expresses the idea of endlessness when connected with what 
is endless, as God. The word great is an illustrative word. Great 
applied to a tree, or mountain, or man, denotes different degrees, all 



(*) "An Examination of the Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible," p. 216, 

(11) Christian Union. 

(12) Lange's Ecclesiastes. 



Lexicography. 1 7 

finite, but when referring to God, it has the sense of infinite. Infinity 
does not reside in the word great, but it has that meaning when ap- 
plied to God. It does not impart it to God, it derives it from him. 
^o oi ai'onionj appHed to Jonah's residence in the fish, it means 
seventy hours ; to the priesthood of Aaron, it signifies several cen- 
turies ; to the mountains, thousands of years; to the punishments 
of a merciful God, as long as is necessary to vindicate his law and 
reform his children; to God himself, eternity. What great is to 
size, aidnios is to duration. Human beings live from a few hours 
to a century; nations from a century to thousands of years ; and 
worlds, for aught we know, from a few to many millions of years, 
and God is eternal. So that when we see the word applied to a 
human life it denotes somewhere from a few days to a hundred 
years; when it is applied to a nation, it denotes anywhere from a 
century to ten thousand years, more or less, and when to God it 
means endless. In other words it practically denotes indefinite 
duration, as we shall see when we meet the word in sacred and 

secular literature. Dr. Beecher well observes : 

*"There are six ages, or aggregates of ages, involving temporary 

systems, spoken of in the Old Testament. These ages are distinctly 
stated to be temporary, and yet to them all are applied ola7n and 
its reduplications, as fully and emphatically as tliey are to God. 
This is a positive demonstration that the word olam., as affirmed 
by Taylor and Fuerst in their Hebrew Concordances 7neans an 
indefiiiiie period or age^ past or future, and not an absolute eternity. 
Whe?i applied to God, the idea of eternity is derived from him, 
AND NOT FROM THE WORD. . . . This indefinite divisioH of time 
is represented by olam (Greek (2/^/2). Hence we find, since there are 
many ages, or periods, that the word is used in the plural. More- 
over, since one great period or age can comprehend under it subor- 
dinate ages, we find such expressions as an age of ages, or an olani of 
olams, and other reduplications. 

"In some cases, however, the reduplication of olam seems to be a 
rhetorical amplification of the idea, without any comprehension of 
ages by a greater age. This is especially true when olam is in the singu- 
lar in both parts of the reduplication, as "To the age of the age." 

"The use of the word in the plural is decisive evidence that the 
sense of the word is not eternity, in the absolute sense, for there can 
be but one such eternity. But as time past and future can be divid- 
ed by ages, so there may be many ages, and an age of ages." 

(*) Christian Union. 



iS Aion — Aidnios. 



■ ETERNAL DURATION AND MODERN CONCEPTIONS. 

It does not seem to have been generally considered by students of 
this subject that tlie thought of endless duration is comparatively a 
modern conception. The ancients, at a time more recent than the 
date of the Old Testament, had not yet cognized the idea of endless 
duration, so that passages containing the word applied to God do 
not mean that he is of eternal duration, but the idea was of indefinite 
and not of unlimited duration, I introduce here a passage from 
Professor Knapp, or Knappius, the author of the best edition 
of tiie Greek Testament known, and one in use in many colleges 
and universities. He is of Halle, Germany, of the evangelical school, 
and ranks as a scholar of rare erudition. He observes : 

"The pure idea of eternity is too abstract to have been conceived 
in the early ages of the world, and accordingly is not found expressed 
by any word iii the ancient languages. But as cultivation advanced 
and this idea became more distinctly developed, it became necessary 
in order to express it to invent new words in a new sense, as was 
done with the words eter7iitas, perennitas^ etc. The Hebrews 
were destitute of any single word to express endless duration. To 
express a past eternity they said before the world was ; a future, when 
the world shall be no more. . . . The Hebrews and other ancient 
people have no one word for expressing the precise idea qf eternity?"* 

AN IMPRESSIVE REFLECTION. 

I pause here long enough to raise this question : Is it" possible that 
our heavenly Father had created a world of endless torture, to which 
his children for thousands of years were crowding in myriads, and 
that he not only had not revealed the fact to them, but was so short- 
sighted that he had not given them a word to express the fact, or 
even a capacity sufficient to bring the idea of the eternal suffering to 
which they were liable, within the compass of their cognition 1 He 
created the horse for man's use, and created man capable of compre- 
hending the horse ; he surrounded him with multitudes of animate 
and inanimate objects, each of which he could name and compre- 
hend, but the most important subject of all — one which must be be- 
i'ieved in, or eternal woe is the penalty, he not only had no name for, 
out was incapable of the faintest conception of the mere fact ! Would, 
or could a good Father be guilty of such an omission .'* 

Can anything be clearer than this, that the lexicographers and 



Lexicography. 19 

critics unite in saying that limited duration is not only allowable, but 
that it is the prevailing signification of the word? Do they not agree 
that eternal duration is not in the word, and can only be imparted 
to it by the subject associated with it? Thus Lexicography declares 
that Limited Duration is the force of the word, duration to be deter- 
mined by the subject treated, if we allow Etymology and Lexico- 
graphy to declare the verdict. And yet it is possible for these to be 
mistaken. Incredible, but still possible, that all students and critics 
of the word should have mistaken its character. But there is one 
tribunal that cannot mislead, and that is Usage. 



III-USAGE. 



In tracing the usage of the word, our sources of information will be 
(i) The Greek Classics, (2)The Sepruagint Old Testament, (3) Those 
Jewish Greeks nearly contemporary' with Christ.(4) The New Tes- 
tament, and (5) The Early Christian Church. 

The Pentateuch was rendered into Greek at about the time of the 
return from the Babylonish Captivity, and the whole Old Testament, 
was combined into one collection about B. C. 200 — 300. At that 
time there was a large amount of Greek literature, now known as the 
Classics, and of course the Seventy gave to all Greek words their 
legitimate meaning, as found in the Classics. To ascertain just what 
the Greek Old Testament means by Aion or any other word, we need 
only learn its meaning in the Classics. They would as soon have 
rendered the Hebrew word for horse by a Greek word meaning fly, 
as they would have used aion for endless duration, if, as we shall 
show is the fact, antecedent Greek literature used it to denote limited 
duration. 

I.— THE GREEK CLASSICS. 



It is a vital question Hcnu was the word used in the Greek litera- 
ture with which the Seventy were familiar^ that is, the Greek Classic i t 

Some years since Rev. Ezra S. Goodwin'^ patiently and candidly 
traced this word through the Classics, finding the noun frequently in 
nearly all the writers, but not meeting the adjective until Plato, its 
inventor, used it. He states, as the result of his protracted and ex- 
haustive examination from the beginning down to Plato, " We have 
the whole evidence of seven Greek writers, extending thro is[h" about 
six centuries, down to the age of Plato, who make use of Aibn^ in rom- 
mon with other words ; and tw one of them ever employs // in ihe 
sense of eternity?' 

When the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek 
by the Seventy, the word aion had been in common use for many cen- 



(13) Christian Examiner, Vols, x, xi, and zii. Boston : Gray&««ovea. 



Classic Usaze. 21 



t^ 



turies. It is preposterous to say that the Seventy would render the 
Hebrew olam by the Greek aion and give to the latter (i) a different 
meaning from that of the former, or (2) a different meaning from aion 
in the current Greek literature. It is self-evident, then, that Aion in 
the Old Testament means exactly what Olam means, and also what 
Aion means in the Greek classics. Indefinite duration is the 
sense of olam, and it is equally clear that aion has a similar signifi- 
cation. 

In the Iliad and Odyssey ^/,^/2 occurs thirteen times, as a noun, be- 
sides its occurrence as a participle in the sense of hearing, perceiving, 
understanding. Homer never uses it as sio^nifying eternal duratio?i. 
Priam to Hector says, ^'' "Thyself shall be deprived of pleasant 
^/^;2^^" (life.) zVndromache over dead Hector,^^ "Husband thou hast 
perished from aidnos'''' (life or time.) 

Dr. Beecher writes'^ "But there is a case that excludes all possi- 
bility of doubt or evasion, in the Homeric Hymn of Mercury, vs. 42 
and 119. Here aion is used to denote the marrow as the li/e of an 
animal, as Moses calls the blood the life. This is recognized by 
Cousins in his Homeric Lexicon. In this case to pierce the life 
{aion) of a turtle means to pierce the spinal cord. The idea of li/e 
is here exclusive of time or eternity." These are fair illustrations 01 
Hom.er's use of the word. 

Hesiod employs it twice: " To him (the married man) during aidnos 
(life) evil is constantly striving, etc.^'' ^Eschylus has the word nine- 
teen times, after this manner: "This life (^^/^/z J seems long, etc. ^* 
"Jupiter, king of the never-ceasing world." ^^ ( ai'ojios apaustau.) 

Piniar gives thirteen instances, such as ■^" "A long life produces 
the four virtues." ( Ela de kai tessaras aretas ho niakros aion.) 

Sophocles nine times. "Endeavor to remain the same in mind as 
long as you live." Askei toiaute noun di aidnos me nein?^ He also em- 
ploys makraion five times, as long-enduring. The word long in- 
creases the force of aidny which would be impossible if it had the 
idea of eternity. 

Aristotle uses aion twelve times. He speaks of the existence or 

(14) I. xxii, 58. 

(15) I. xxiv, 725, 

(16) Christian Union. 
<i7) Theog. 609. 
(18) Pcrsae 263. 

(i9)Supp. 572, cited Dy Prof. Taylcr Lewis. 
(20) Nem. iii, 130. 
3i) Electra 1030. 



22 



Aton — Aidnios. 



duration (aidii) of the earth ; ^ of an unlimited atonos ; ^ and else« 
where, he says : aton sunekes kai aidios, "an eternal aion'' (or being) 
''pertaining to God." The tact that Aristotle found it necessary to add 
aidios to ai'on to ascribe eternity to God demonstrates that he found 
no sense of eternity in the word ai'on^ and utterly discards the idea 
that he held the word to mean endless duration., even admitting that 
he derived it, or supposed the ancients did, from aei on according to 
the opinion of some lexicographers. 

A similar use of the word appears in de Cselo. ^* "The entire heav- 
en is one and eternal {aidios) having neither beginning nor end of an 
entire aioii.'" In the same work ^^ occurs the famous passage where 
Aristotle has been said to describe the derivation of the word, which 
we have quoted on page 7, Aion estin, apo tou aei einai. 

Mr. Goodwin well observes that the word had existed a thousand 
years before Aristotle's day, and that he had no knowledge of its or- 
igin, and poorer facilities for tracing it than many a scholar of the 
present, possesses. "While, therefore, we would regard an opinion of 
Aristotle on the derivation of an ancient word, with the respect due 
to extensive learning and venerable age, still we must bear in mind 
that his opinion is not indisputable authority," Mr. Goodwin pro- 
ceeds to affirm that Aristotle does not apply aei on to duration, but 
to God, and that (as we have shown) a human existence is an Ai'on. 
Completeness, whether brief or protracted, is his idea; and as Aris^ 
totle employed it ^'' Ai'on did not contain the meaning of eternity." 
Hippocrates. "A human ai'on is a seven days matter." 
Empedocles., An earthly body deprived of happy life, (aionos.) 
Euripides uses the word thirty-two times. We quote three in- 
stances : ^^ "Marriage to those mortals who are well situated is a hap- 
py <a!/^/^." ^7 "Every ^/^y^ of mortals is unstable." ^^ "Along aion has 
many things to say," etc. 

Philoctetes. "He breathed out the ai'onaP Mr. Goodwin thus con- 
cludes his conscientious investigation of such of the Greek classics as 
he examined line by line, "aion in these writers never expresses 

POSITIVE eternity." 



(22) De Mundo Cap. 5. 

(23) In Metaph Lib. xiv, 

(24) Lib. ii. 

(25) Lib. i, Cap. 9. 

(26) Orestes, t;96. 

(27) Ibid 971. 

(28) Med. 428. 



Classic Usage, 23 

In his Physic,'^ Aristotle quotes a passage from Empedocles, syaing 
that in certain cases '' ai'on is not permanent." 

AIONIOS. 

Aidnios k found in none of the ancient classics above quoted. 
Finding it in Plato, Mr. Goodwin thinks that Plato coined it, and it 
had not come into general use, for even Socrates, the teacher of 
Plato, does not use it. Aidios is the classic word for endless dura- 
tion. 

Plato uses aion eight times, aidnios five, dtaionios once, and makraion 
twice. Of course if he regarded (2/^;2 as meaning eternity he would 
not prefix the word meaning long, to add duration to it. 

In all the above authors extending more than six hundred years, the 
word is never found. Of course it must mean the same as the noun that 
is its source. It having clearly appeared that the noun is uniformly 
used to denote limited duration, and never to signify eternity, it is 
equally apparent that the adjective must mean the same. The noun 
sweetness gives its flavor to its adjective, sweet. The adjective long 
means precisely the same as the noun length. When sweet stands 
for acidity, and long represents brevity, aidnios can properly mean 
eternal, derived from aion^ which represents limited duration. To 
say that Plato, the inventor of the word, has used the adjective to 
mean eternal, when neither he nor any of his predecessors ever used 
the noun to denote eternity, would be to charge one of the wisest of 
men with etymological stupidity. Has he been guilty of such folly ? 
How does he use the word } 

Plato's usage. 

1. He employs the noun as his predecessors did. I give an illus- 
tration*— ^ "Leading a life {aidna) involved in troubles." 

2. The Adjective. ^^ Referring to certain souls in Hades, he de- 
scribes them as in aionion intoxication. But that he does not use 
the word in the sense of endless is evident from the Phaedon, where 
he says, "It is a very ancient opinion that souls quitting this world, 
repair to the infernal regions, and return after that, to live in this 
world.''' After the ^/^/2/^;2 intoxication is over, they return to earth, 
which demonstrates that the word was not used by him as meaning 

*De Legib. Lib. iii. 

(29) Lib. viii cap i. 

(30) Dc Rcpub. Lib. ii. 



2 4 AioJi — Aibnios. 

endless. Again,^^ he speaks of that which is indestructible, (^;Z(?/<f//zr(?;?) 
and not aidnion. He places the two words in contrast, whereas, had 
he intended to use aidnion as meaning endless, he would have said 
indestructible and aidnion. 

Once more, ^^ Plato quotes four instances of aion^ and three of 
aidnios, and one of diaionios in a single passage, in contrast with 
aidios (eternal.) The gods he calls eternal, {aidios) but the soul and 
the corporeal nature, he says, are aidnios^ belonging to time, and "all 
these," he says, ^'arepart of ti7neP And he calls Time [ Kronos] an 
aionios image of Aidnos. Exactly what so obscure an author may 
mean here is not apparent, but one thing is perfectly clear, he cannot 
mean eternity and eternal hy aidnos and aidnion^ for nothing is wider 
from the fact than that fluctuating, changing Time, beginning and 
ending, and full of mutations, is an image of Eternity. It is in 
every possible particular its exact opposite. 

In De Mundo,^^ Aristotle says : "Which of these things separately 
can be compared with the order of the heaven, and the relation of 
the stars, sun, and also the moon moving in most perfect measures 
from one aidn to another aidii^"^ — ex aidnos eis eteron aidna. Now even 
if Aristotle had said that the word was at first derived horn, two words 
that signify always being, his own zise of it demonstrates that it had 
not that meaning then [B. C. 350.] Again,^'* he says of the earth, 
"All these things seem to be done for her good, in order to maintain 
safety during her aidnos,'"' duration, or life. And still more to the 
purpose is this quotation concerning God's existence. ^^ Life and an 
aidn continuous and eternal, ^^zoe kai aidii, sunekes kai aidios, etc.'*' 
Here the word aidios, [eternal] is employed to qualify aidn and im- 
part to it what it had not of itself, the sense of eternal. Aristotle 
could be guilty of no such language as ''an eternal eternity." Had 
the word aidn contained the idea of eternity in his time, or in his 
mind, he would not have added aidios. "For the limit enclosing the 
time of the life of every man, ' ' ' is called his continuous exis- 
tence, aidn. On the same principle, the limit of the whole heaven, 
and the limit enclosing the universal system, is the divine and im- 
mortal ever-existing aidn, deriving the name aidn from ever-existing, 
\aci dn.y ^^ In eleven out of twelve instances in the works of Aristotle, 

(311 De Leg., Lib. x. 

(32) Timseus. 

(33 Cap. 5, p. 609 C. 

(34) Cap 5. p. 610. A. 

(35) Metaph., Lib. xiv, cap. 7. 

(36) De Ccelo., i, g. 



Classic Usage. 25 

aibn is used either doubtfully, or in a manner similar to the instance 
above cited, [from one aion to another, that is, from one age to 
another,] but in this last instance it is perfectly clear that an ai'on is 
only without end when it is described by an adjective like aidios^ 
whose meaning is endless. Nobody cares how the word originated, 
after hearing from Aristotle himself that created objects exist from 
one aion to another, and that the existence of the eternal God is not 
described by a word so feeble, but by the addition of another that 
expresses endless duration. Here ai'on only obtains the force of eter- 
nal duration by being reinforced by the word immortal. If it meant 
eternity, the addition of immortal is like adding gilding to re- 
fined gold, and daubing paint on the petal of the lily. 

In most of these the word is enlarged by descriptive adjectives, 
^schylus calls Jupiter "king of the nevej^-ceasing aion,'"' and Aristotle 
expressly states in one case that the aiojt of heaven "has neither be- 
ginning nor end," and in another instance he calls man's life his aion, 
and the aion of heaven "immortal." If^ aion denotes eternity, why 
add "neither beginning nor end, "or "immortal, "to describe its mean- 
ing? These quotations unanswerably show tha.t aion in the Clas- 
sics, never means eternity unless a qualifying word or subject con- 
nected with it add to its intrinsic value. 

Says Dr. Beecher : In Rome there were certain periodical games 
known as the secular games, from the Latin seculum, a period, or age. 
The historian, Herodian, writing in Greek, calls these aidnian gsixnes, 
that is, periodical, occurring at the end of a seculum. It would be 
singular, indeed, to call them eternal or everlasting games. Creraer, 
in his masterly Lexicon of New Testament Greek, states the general 
meaning of the word to be ' Belonging to the (2/i);z.' " Herodotus, 
Isocrates, Xenophon, Sophocles, Diodorus Siculus use the word in 
precisely the same way. Diodorus Siculus says Ion apeiron aidna, 
"indefinite time." 

THE CLASSICS NEVER USE AION TO DENOTE ETERNITY. 

It appears, then, that the classic Greek writers, for more than six 
centuries before the Septuagint was written, used the word ai'oii and 
its adjective, but never once in the sense of endless duration. 

When, therefore, the Seventy translated the Hebrew Scriptures in- 
to Greek, what meaning must they have intended to give to these 
words. I* It is not possible, it is absolutely insupposablc that they 
used them with any other meaning than that which they had held 



2 6 Aio?i — Aionios. 

in the antecedent Greek literature. As the Hebrew word meaning: 
horse, was rendered by a Greek word meaning horse, as each Hebrew 
word was exchanged for a Greek word denoting precisely the same 
thing, so the terms expressive of duration in Hebrew became Greek 
terms expressing a similar duration. The translators consistently 
render olam by aton, both denoting indefinite duration. 

We have shown, p. i8, that the idea of eternity had not entered the 
Hebrew mind when the Old Testament was written. How then 
could it employ terms expressive of endless duration } We have now 
shown that the Greek literature uniformly understands the word in 
the sense of limited duration. This teaches us exactly how the word 
was taken at the time the Septuagint was prepared, and shows us how 
to read underscandingly the Old Testament. 

When at length the idea of eternity was cognized by the human 
mind, probably first by the Greeks, what word did they employ to 
represent the idea.^ Did they regard aid7i — aid?iion as adequate .'* 
Xot at all, but Plato and Aristotle and others employ aidtos, and dis- 
tinctly use it in contrast with our mooted word. We have instanced 
Aristotle, '*' " The entire heaven is one and eternal \aidios\ having 
neither beojinning nor end of a complete aion, [life, or duration.] " 
In the same chapter aidiotes is used to mean eternity. 

Plato, ^" calls the gods aidion, and their essence aidion^ in contrast 
with temporal matters, which are aionios. Aidios then, is the favor- 
ite word descriptive of endless duration in the Greek writers con- 
temporar}" with the Septuagint. Aion is never thus used. 

When, therefore, the Seventy translated the Hebrew Scriptures in- 
to Greek they must have used this word with the meaning it had 
whenever they had found it in the Greek classics. To accuse them 
of using it otherwise is to charge them with an intention to mislead 
and deceive. 

Mr. Goodwin well observes : ''Those lexicographers who assign 
eternity as one of the meanings of aid?i^ uniformly appeal for proofs 
to either theological, Hebrew or Rabbinnical Greek, or some species 
of Greek subsequent to the age of the Seventy, if not subsequent to 
the age of the apostles, so far as I can ascertain. I do not know of 
an instance in which any lexicographer has produced the usage of 
ancient classical Greek, in evidence that aion means eternity. 
Anxient classical greek rejects it altogether. • • "" By 



(37) De Ccelo, Lib. ii. cap. i. 

(38) Quoting from Timzeus Locrus. 



The Old Testament Usage. 27 

ancient he means the Greek existing in ages anterior to the days of 
the Seventy. 

Thus it appears that when the Seventy began their work of giving 
the world a Greek version of the Old Testament that should convey 
the exact sense of the Hebrew Bible, they must have used ai'on in the 
sense in which it then was used. Endless duration is not the mean- 
ing the word had in Greek literature at that time. Therefore the 
word cannot have that meaning in the Old Testament Greek. 
Nothing can be plainer than that Greek Literature at the time the 
Hebrew Old Testament was rendered into the Greek Septaugint did 
not give to Aion the meaning of endless duration. Let us then con- 
sider the Old Testament Usage. 



2.— THE OLD TESTAMENT USAGE. 



We have concluded, ^/r/^r/, that the Old Testament must em- 
ploy the word Aion in the sense of indefinite duration, because that 
was the uniform meaning of the word in all antecedent and contem- 
poraneous Greek literature. Otherwise the Old Testament would 
mislead its readers. We now proceed to show that such is the ac- 
tual usage of the word in the Old Testament. 

And let us pause a moment on the brink of our investigation to 
speak of the utter absurdity of the idea that God has hung the great 
topic of the immortal welfare of millions of souls on the meaning of 
a single equivocal word. Had he intended to teach endless punish- 
ment by one word, that word would have been so explicit and uni- 
form and frequent that no mortal could mistake its meaning. It 
would have been guarded from first to last with strictest care, and 
would have stood unique and peculiar among words. It would no 
more be found conveying a limited meaning than is the sacred name 
of Jehovah applied to any finite being. Instead of denoting every 
degree of duration, as it does, it never would have meant less than 
eternity. The thought that God has suspended the question of 
man's final destiny on such a word would seem too preposterous to 
be entertained by any reflecting mind, did we not know that such an 
idea is held by Christians, 

Endless duration is never expressed or implied in the Old Testa- 
ment by Ai'on or any of its derivatives, except in instances 



2 S Aton — Aionios. 

where it acquires that meaning from the subject connected with it. 
How is it used ? Let us adduce a few illustrative 

EXAMPLES. 

Gen, \-\ : 4, "There were giants in the earth in those days ; and al- 
so after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of 
men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men 
which were of old, (aidnos), men of renown." Gen. ix : 12 ; God's 
covenant with Noah was '"ioi perpetual {aidmous) generations." Gen. 
ix : 16 ; The rainbow is the token of '*the everlasting {aidnion) cove- 
nant" between God and "all flesh that is upon the earth." Gen. xiii: 
15 : God gave the land to Abram and his seed '^ forever ^'^ (aidnos). 
Dr. T. Clowes says of this passage that it signifies the duration of 
human life, and he adds, "Let no one be surprised that we use the 
word Olam {A ion) in this limited sense. This is one of the most 
usual significations of the Hebrew Olam and the Greek ^z't?//." In 
Isa. Iviii : 12 ; it is rendered ^'old"*' and ^foundatio7is" (aidnioi and 
aidnia^. "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste 
places ; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and 
thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach." In Jer. xWii : 15, 
16, ancient 3.nd perpetual J {aid niou s smd aianiari). "Because my people 
hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanitv'', and they have 
caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk 
in paths, in a way not cast up ; to make their land desolate, and a 
perpetual hissing; every one tha.t passeth thereby shall be astonished, 
and was: his head." Such instances mav be cited to an indefinite 
extent. Ex. xv : iS. "forever and ever and further," {ton aidna, kai 
ep aidna, kai eti.) Ex. xii : 17. "And ye shaU obser\'e the feast of 
unleavened bread ; for in this selfsame day have I brought your ar- 
mies out of the land of Eg\pt, therefore shall ye observe this day in 
your generations by an ordinance forever,^'' {aidnion). Numb, x : 8, 
"And the sons of Aaron the priests, shall blow with the trumpets ; 
and they shall be to you for an ordinance forever {aidnion) through- 
out YOUR GENERATIONS." "Your generations," is here idiomatical- 
ly given as the precise equivalent of "forever." Canaan was given 
as an ""everlasting {aidnio?i) possession ;" (Gen. xvii : 8, xlviii : 4; Lev. 
xxiv : 8. 9 ;) the hills are everlasting {aidnioi •) (Hab. iii : 6 ;) the 
priesthood of Aaron (Ex xl : 15; Numb, xxv : 13 ; Lev. xvi : 34;) was 
to eyi\s\. forever^ and continue through ez-erlasting d\irdX\on ; Solomon's 
temple was to last forever, (i Chron. xvii : 12 ;) though it has long 
since ceased to be; slaves were to remain in bondage y<7r«7^r, (Lev. 



The Old Testament Usage. 29 

XXV : 46 ;) though every fiftieth year all Hebrew servants were to be 
set at liberty, (Lev. xxv : 10 ;) Jonah suffered an imprisonment be- 
hind the everlasting bars of earth, (Jon. ii : 6 ;) the smoke of Idumea 
was to ascend forever^ (Isa. xxxiv : 10 ;) though it no longer rises , 
to the Jews God says (Jer. xxxii : 40 ;) "and I will bring an everlast- 
ing reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, whicti shall not be 
forgotten," and yet, after the fullness of the Gentiles shall come 
in, Israel will be restored. Rom. xi : 25-6. 

Not only in all these and multitudes of other cases does, the word 
mean limited duration, but it is also used in the plural, thus debar- 
ring it from the sense of endless, as there can be but one eternity. 
In Dan. xii : 3 ; the literal reading, if we allow the word to mean 
eternity, is, "to eternities and farther^' {eis tons aidnas kai eti.) Micah 
iv : 5, "We will walk in the name of the Lord our God to eternity, 
and beyond," eis to?t aidna kai epekeina. Ps. cxix : 43-4, "And take 
not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth ; for I have hoped in 
thy judgments. So shall I keep thy \siV7 con\.\r\M3\\y forever and ever.'* 
This is the strongest combination of the aionian phraseology : eis ton 
aidna kai eis ton aidna tou aionos, and yet it is David's promise of fidel- 
ity as long as he lives among them that "reproach" him, in "the 
house of his pilgrimage," Ps. cxlviii : 4-6, "Praise him, ye heaven 
of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them 
praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded and they were 
created. He hath also established ihem for ^z^^r ^.^^(fz;.?/'.- he hath 
made a decree which shall not pass. The sun and moon, the stars 
of light, and even the waters above the heavens are established for- 
ever^"^ eis ton aidna tou aidnos^ and yet the firmament is one day to 
become as a folded garment, and the orbs of heaven are to be no 
more. Endless duration is out of the question in these and many 
similar instances. 

In Lam. v : 19, "forever and ever" is used as the equivalent of 
"from generation to generation." Joel ii : 26-27, "And ye shall eat 
in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your 
God, that hath dealt wondrously with you : and my people shall 
never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of 
Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none else : and my peo- 
ple shall never be ashamed." This is spoken of the Jewish nation. 
Isa, Ix : 15, "Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no 
man went through thee, I willmake theean ^f/ffr/z^/ (^/i>///<7//) excellen- 
cy, a joy of many generations," Here many generations aiul eternal 
are exact equivalents, i Sam. i : 22, "But Hannah went not uj) : for 



30 Aion — Aidnios. 

she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be 
weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, 
and there abide /(S'r^fZ'ffr." The remaining of Samuel in the temple 
was to be "forever" (aionos.) 2 Kings, v: 27, "The leprosy there- 
fore ofNaaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed forever?^ 
{ton aiond). Undoubtedly the seed of Gehazi is still on earth : but 
whether so or not the leprosy has departed Daniel ii : 4, "Then 
spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, O king, live forever : eis 
talis aidnaP The Chaldean's live forever meant precisely what the 
French Vive, and the English "Long live the King" mean. Eternal 
duration never entered the thought. Jerem. xvii : 25, "Then shall 
there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon 
the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their 
princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and this 
city shall xoxci^xn. forever^'' eis ton aiona. Eternity was not promised 
here. Long duration is the extent of the promise. Josh, iv : 7, 
"Then ye shall answer them. That the waters of Jordan were cut off 
before the ark of the covenant of the Lord : when it passed over 
Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off; and these stones shall be 
for a memorial unto the children of lsrz.e.\ forever,"" ton aionos. These 
stones are no longer a memorial. This forever has ended. 

Forever and ever is applied to the hosts ot heaven, or the sun, 
moon, and stars ; to a writing contained in a book ; to the smoke 
that went up from the burning land of Idumea: and to the time 
the Jews were to dwell in Judea." The word never is applied 
to the time the sword was to remain in the house of David, to 
the time the Jews should experience shame. ^^ 

'"''Everlasting^^ is applied to God's covenant with the Jews; to the 
priesthood of Aaron ; to the statutes of Moses ; to the time the Jews 
were to possess the land of Canaan ; to the mountains and hills ; and 
to the doors of the Jewish temple.^ The word forever is applied to 
the duration of man's earthly existence ; to the time a child was to 
abide in the temple ; to the continuance of Gehazi's leprosy ; to the 
duration of the life of David ; to the duration of a king's life ; to the 
duration of the earth ; to the time the Jews were to possess the land 

(37) Ps. cxlviii, 5, 6. Isa. xxx, 8 xxxiv, lo. Jer. vii, 7 ; xxv, 5. 

(38) 2 Sam. xii, 10. Joel ii, 26, 27. 

(^Q> (Jniv. Book of Reference, pp. 106-7 

,40,1 Gen. xvii, 7, 8, 13 ; xlviii, 4 ; xlix, 26. Ex. xl, i:;. Lev. xvi, 34. Num. xxv, 13. Ps. xxiv, 7 
Hab. iii, 6. 



The Old Testament Usage. 31 

of Canaan ; to the time they were to dwell in Jerusalem ; to the time 
a servant was to abide with his master; to the time Jerusalem was 
to remain a city ; to the duration of the Jewish temple ; to the laws 
and ordinances of Moses ; to the time David was to be king over Is- 
rael ; to the throne of Solomon ; to the stones that were set up at 
Jordan ; to the time the righteous were to inhabit the earth ; and to 
the time Jonah was in the fish's belly.''^ 

And yet, the land of Canaan, the Jews' "everlasting possession," 
has passed from their hands ; the covenant of circumcision, an "ev- 
erlasting covenant" was abolished almost two thousand years ago ; 
the Jewish atonement (Lev. xvi,) an everlasting statute, is abrogated 
by the atonement of Christ ; David was never to want a man to sit 
on Israel's throne. This aionian line of succession was long ago 
broken. 

We have found the noun Aion three hundred and ninety- four 
times in the Old Testament, and the adjective Aidnion one hundred 
and ten times, and in all but four times it is the translation of Olajn. 

THE NOUN. 

Waiving the passages where it is applied to God, and where by ac- 
commodation it may be allowed to imply endlessness, just as great 
applied to God means infinity, let us consult the general usage : 
Eccl. i: 10, "Is there anything whereof it maybe said, See^ this is new! 
it hath been already of (^/^ ////?<?, which was before us." Ps. xxv:6, 
"Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses ; 
for they have been ever of old,''' {aid?tos). Ps. cxix : 52, "I remember- 
ed thy judgments of old^ O Lord ; and have comforced myself." Isa. 
xlvi : 9, "Remember the former things of old?'' Isa. Ixiv : 4, "Since 
the beginning of the world,'' (aidnos). Jer. xxviii: 8," "The prophets 
that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both 
against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war^ and of 
evil, and of pestilence." Jer. ii : 20, "For of old time I have broken 
thy yoke, and burst thy bands." Prov. viii : 23, "I (wisdom) was set 
up from everlasting {aidnos) from the beginning, or ever the earth 
was." Here ^W2<?^ and "before the world was," are in apposition. 
Ps. Ixxiii : 12, "Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the 
world," (time, aid?ios.) Deut. xxxii : 7, "Remember the days oi old.'' 

1(41) Deut. XV, 17. I Sam. i, 22 ; xxvii, 12. Lev. xxv, 46. II Kings v, 27. Job xli, 4. I Kings 
1,31. Neh. ii, 3. Dan. ii, 4. Exod. xiv, 13. Ecc. i, 4. Ps. civ, 5; Ixxviii, 69. Ezek. 
xxxvii, 25. Gen.xiii,i5. Exod. xxxii, 13. Josh, xiv, 9. I Chron. xxiii, 25. Jer. xvii,3S. 
Ps. xiviii, 8. Jer. xxxi, 40. I Kings viii, 13. Num. x, 8 ; xviii, 2 ;. I (."liron. xxviii, 4 
II Kings ix, 5. Josh, iv, 7. Jonah ii, 6. Ps. xxxvii, 21). 



32 A^hi — Aidnios. 

Ezek. xxvi : 20, "The people oi oldtijne!" Ps. cxliii : 3, "Those who 
have been long dead." — Same in Lam. iii : 6. Amos ix . ii,"Days^/ 
old'' Isa. i : 9, "Generations of old P Micah vii : 14, "Days*?/ old'* 
Same in Malachi iii : 4. Ps. xlviii : i4,"For this God is our God for 
ever and ever: he ^yill be our guide even unto death," This plural 
form denotes "even unto death." Christ's kingdom is prophesied 
as destined to endure "forever," "without end," etc. Dan. ii : 44; 
Isa. lix : 21 ; Ps. ex : 4; Isa. ix : 7 ; Ps. Ixxxix : 29. Now if any- 
thing is taught in the Bible, it is that Christ's kingdom shall end. 
In I Corin. xv : it is expressly and explicitly declared that Jesus shall 
surrender the kingdom to God the Father, that his reign shall 
entirely cease. Hence, when we read in such passages as Dan. ii : 
44, that Christ's kingdom shall stand forever, we must understand 
that the forever denotes the reign of Messias, bounded by "the end," 
when God shall be "all in all." 

Servants were declared to be bound forever, when all ser- 
vants were emancipated ever}^ fifty years. Thus in Deut. xv : 
16, 17, we read, "And it shall be, if he say unto thee, I will not go 
away from thee; because he loveth thee and thine house, because he 
is well with thee, then thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through 
his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant forever." And 
yet we are told, Lev. xlv : to, 39, 41, "And ye shall hallow the fif- 
tieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the 
inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall re- 
turn every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man 
unto his family. And if thy brother that dwelleth with thee be wax- 
en poor, and be sold unto thee ; thou shalt not compel him to serve 
as a bond servant, but as a hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall 
be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubilee: and then 
shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and 
shall returh unto his own family, and unto the possession of his father 
shall he return." This forever at the utmost could only be forty-nine 
years and three hundred and sixty-four days and some odd hours. 
And certainly no one will ascribe endless duration to aioti in the fol- 
lowing passages : II Sam. vii : 16, 29 ; I Ki. ii : 45, and ix : 5 ; I Chron. 
xvii : 27, and xxviii:4; II Chron. xiii : 5 ; Psa. Ixxxix : 4, 36, 37 ; 
Ezek. xxxvii : 25 ; I Sam. xiii : 13 ; II Sam. vii : 13, 16, 25, 26 ; 
xxii:5i; I Ki. ii : 33 ; I Chron. xvii : 12, 14, 14,23, and xxii : 10, 
xxviii : 7 ; Psa. xviii : 50, Ixxxix : 4, and cxxxii : 12 ; Ex. xxxii : 13 , 
Josh, xiv : 9; I Chron. xx : 7 ; Jud. ii : i ; II Ch. vii : 3 ; Psa. cv : 8 ; Gen. 
xiii : 15 ; I Ch. xxviii : 4, 7, 8 ; Jer. xxxi : 40 ; Ezek. xxxvii : 25 ; Jer.vii : 



The Old Testament Usage. 33 

7 , 7 ; II Sam.vii : 24 ; I Chron. xvii : 22 ; Joel iii : 20 ; II Ki. xxi : 7 ; II 
Chron. xxxiii : 4; Psa. xlviii : 8 ; Jer. xvii : 25 ; I Chron. xxiii : 25 ; 
Isa. xviii : 7 ; I Ki. ix : 3 ; II Chron. xxx : 8 ; Ezek. xxxvii : 26, 28 ; 
II Chron. vii : 16 ; Ex. xix : 9, and xl : 15 ; I Chron. xxiii : 23, 
13 ; I Chron. xv : 2 ; Lev. iii : 17 ; II Chron. ii : 4 ; Ex. xii : 24 Josh, 
iv : 7 ; Am. i : 11 ; Isa. xiii : 20; Isa. xxxiii :2o, xxxiv ^ 10 ; I Ki. x : 9 ; 
II Chron. ix : 8 ; Psa. cii : 28; Ezek. xliii -. 7. 

Many passages allude to the earth as enduring forever — to the 
grave, as man's "long home," to God's existence, as "forever, 
etc." Often the language is equivalent to " to the ages," or " from 
age to age," and sometimes eternal duration is predicated, never be- 
cause the word compels it, but because the theme treated requires it. 

THE ADJECTIVE 

is applied to God, Zion, and things intrinsically endless, and thus 
acquires from the connected subjects a meaning not inherent in the 
word, as in the following passages: Gen. xxi : 33 ; Ex. iii : 15 ; Job 
xxxiii : 12 ; Isa. xl : 28, li : 11, liv : 8, Iv: 3, 13, Ivi : 5 ; Ix : 15, 19, 
Ixi : 7, 8 : Ixiii : 12 ; Ezek. xxxvii : 26 ; Dan. : vii 27, ix : 24, xii : 2, 
Hab. iii : 6 ; Ps. cxii : 6, cxxx : 8. 

THE ADJECTIVE LIMITED. 

But it is found with limited meaning in these and other passages : 
Gen. IX : 12-16; Gen. xvii : 8, 13, 19 ; and Num. xxv : 13 ; Ex. xii: 
14, 17 ; xxvii : 21 ; xxviii : 43 ; xxix : 28 ; xxx : 21 ; xxxi : 16, 17 ; Lev. 
vi : 18, 22 ; vii : 34, 36 ; x : 15 ; xvi : 29, 31, 34 ; xvii : 7 ; xxiii : 14, 
31, 41 ; xxiv : 3, 8, 9. Num. x : 8 ; xv : 15 ; xviii : 8, 1 1, 19, 23 ; 
xix : 10, 21 ; II Sam. xxiii : 5 ; I Chron. xvi : 17 ; Isa. xxiv : 5 ; Ezek. 
xvi : 60 ; Psa, Ixxvii : 5 ; Isa Ixiii : 11 ; Jer. vi : i6 ; xviii : 15 ; Job 
xxi: 11; xxii:i5; Isa. Iviii : 12 ; Ixi : 4 ;Ezek. xxvi : 20 ; Prov. xxii : 
28; xxiii : 10 ; Ezek. xxxvi : 2 ; xxxv : 5 ; Isa. liv : 4; Jer. v : 22 ; 
xviii : 16 ; xxv : 9, 12 ; Ezek. xxxv : 9 ; Jer. xx : 17 ; xxiii : 40; li : 39 ; 
Micah ii : 9. 

Let us quote some of the foregoing texts : " And ye shall observe 
the feast of unleavened bread ; for in this selfsame day have I brought 
your armies out of the land of Egypt : therefore shall ye observe 
this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever," "And thou 
shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure olive 
beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always." " In the taber- 
nacle of the congregation without the vail, which is before the testi- 
mony, Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning 
before the Lord : it shall be a si^iwiQ for ever unto their generations 
on behalf of the children of Israel." " And they shall be upon Aaron 



34 Aion — Aianos. 

and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the 
congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in 
the holy place; that they bear not iniquity and die: it shall be a 
statute for ever unto him and his seed after him." ** Hast thou not 
marked the old way which wicked men have trodden ?" " Fear ye 
not me : saith the Lord : will ye not tremble at my presence, which 
have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by 2. perpetual decree, 
that it cannot pass it : and though the waves thereof toss themselves, 
yet can they not prevail ; though they roar, yet can they not pass 
over it?" 

To render the word eternal will show how absurd that definition is, 
in the following passages^ : 

" I will give unto thee, and thy seed after thee, the land wherein 
thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an ^/<rr/Mr/ possession." 
" And thou shalt anoint them as thou didst their father, that they 
may minister unto me in the priest's office ; for their anointing shall 
surely be a priesthood through the eternity P *'' Then his-master shall 
bring him to the door, or unto the door-posts, and his master shall 
bore his ear through with an awl. and he shall serve him through the 
eternity P 

•The waters compas->5:ed me i~;u: — frtv. to the soul; 
The weeds were wrapped about my head, 
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains ; 
The earth with her eternal bars was about me." 

Still further do the subjoined texts demonstrate the impropriety of 
the popular rendering, which would compel us to read^ : " The Lord 
shall reign to the eternity^ and during the eternity^ and longer." " And 
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and 
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars through the eterni- 
ties and longer j"* " And we will walk in the name of Jehovah our 
God through the eternity and longer^ But substitute ages and the 
sense is perfect. Ex. x\': 18, " The Lord shall reign from age to age, 
and beyond all the ager^'' Dan. xii: 3, " Through the ages and beyond 
them all/"* Micah iv: 5, " Through the age and beyond it?"* 

X : one can read the Old Testament carefully and unbiassed, and 
fail to see that the word has a great range of meaning, bearing some 
such relation to duration as the word great does to size. We say God 
is infinite when we call him the Great God, not because great means 
infinite, but because God is infinite. The ai'onion God is of eternal 

(42) Gen. xrii: 8; Ex. xl: 15; xxi: 6; Jonah ii: 5, 6. 

(43) Ex. xv: 18: Dan. xii: 3; Micah iv: 5. 



The Old Testament Usage. 35 

dnration, biat the aidnion smoke of Idumea has expired, and the ai'o- 
nion hills will one day crumble, and all merely aionian things will 
cease to be. 

While it is a rule of language that adjectives qualify and describe 
nouns, it is no less true that nouns modify adjectives. A tall flower, 
a tal'l dog, a tall man, and a tall tree are of different degrees of length, 
though the different nouns are described by the same adjective. The 
adjective is in each instance modified by its noun, just as the aionian 
bars that held Jonah three days, and the aionian priesthood of Aaron 
already ended, and the aionian hills yet to be destroyed, and aionian 
punishment, always proportioned to human guilt, are of different de- 
grees of length. The adjective is modified and its length is deter- 
mined by the noun with which it is connected. 

THE SUBJECT DETERMINES THE DURATION DESCRIBED BY THE 

ADJECTIVE. 

Prof. Tayler Lewis says, " ' One generation passeth away, and an- 
other generation cometh ; but the earth abideth forever.' This cer- 
tainly indicates, not an endless eternity in the strictest sense of the 
word, but only a future of unlimited length. Ex. xxxi: 16; ' Where- 
fore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sab- 
bath throughout their generations, for a /(?r/^/z/^/ covenant.' Olam 
here would seem to be taken as a hyperbolical term for indefinite or 
unmeasured duration." Where the context demands it, as "I live 
forever," spoken of God, he says it means endless duration, for "//zV 
the subject to which it is applied that forces to this, and not any etymo- 
logical necessity in the word itself .''' He adds that Olavi 3.nd A ion, in 
the plural, ages, and ages of ages, demonstrate that neither of the 
words, of itself, denotes eternity. He admits that they are used to 
give an idea of eternity, but that applied to God and his kingdom, 
the ages are finite"*^. Prof. L. is eminently learned and as eminently 
orthodox. 

THE END OF AIONIAN THINGS. 

Now the Jews have lost their eternal excellency; Aaron and his 
sons have ceased from their priesthood ; the Mosaic system is super- 
seded by Christianity; the Jews no longer possess Cannan; David 
and his house have lost the throne of Israel ; the Jewish temple is 
destroyed, and Jerusalem is wiped out as tne holy city ; the servants 
who were to be bondmen forever are all free from their masters ; Ge- 
hazi is cured of his leprosy; the stones are removed from Jordan, and 
the smoke of Idumea no longer rises; the righteous do not possess 

<44) Note on Eccl. i: 4. Lange's Com. pp. 45-50. 



^6 ' Aioji — Aionios. 

the land promised them forever ; some of the hills and mountains 
have fallen, and the tooth of Time will one day gnaw the last of them 
into dust; the fire has expired from the Jewish altar; Jonah has es- 
caped from his imprisonment ; all these and numerous other eter- 
nal, everlasting things — things that were to last forever, and to which 
the various aionian words are applied — have now ended, and if these 
hundreds of instances must denote limited duration why should the 
few times in which punishments are spoken of have any other mean- 
ing? Even if endless duration were the intrinsic meaning of the 
word, all intelligent readers of the Bible would perceive that the word 
must be employed to denote limited duration in the passages above 
cited. And surely in the very few times in which it is connected 
with punishment it must have a similar meaning. For who administers 
this punishment.' Not a monster, not an infinite devil, but a God of love 
and mercy, and the same common sense that would forbid us to give 
the word the meaning of endless duration, were that its literal mean- 
ing, when we see it applied to what we know has ended, would forbid 
us to give it that meaning when applied to the dealings of an Infinite 
Father with an erring and beloved child. But when we interpret it in 
the light of its lexicography, and general usage out of the Old Testa- 
ment, and perceive that it only has the sense of endless when the sub- 
ject compels it, as when referring to God, we see that it is a species of 
blasphemy to allow that it denotes endless duration when describing 
God's punishments. 

APPLIED TO PUNISHMENT. 

A few prominent instances illustrate the usage of the word con- 
nected with punishment. Ps. ix : 5, " Thou hast destroyed the 
wicked." How.? the explanation follows: "'' T\\om \i2L'i\. put out their 
name forever and ever^' {ton atona, kai eis ton aiona tou aionos.) I'his 
is not endless torment, but oblivion. Solomon elsewhere observes : 
Prov. x: 7, " The name of the wicked shall rot," while David says, 
Ps. cxii: 6, The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance." Ps. 
Ixxviii: 66, " He put them (his enemies) to a perpetual reproach." 
Is. xxxiii: 14, ''Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire.? 
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings } " The prophet 
is here speaking of God's temporal judgments, represented by fire. 
"The earth mourneth; Lebanon is ashamed; the people shall be as 
the burnings of lime." Who will dwell in safety amid these fiery 
judgments.? these aionian burnings.? "He that walks uprightly.'* 
Earthly judgments among which the upright are to dwell in safety 
are here described, and not endless fire hereafter. Jer. xvii: 4, "Ye 



The Old Testament Usage. 37 

have kindled a fire in mine anger which shall burn forever." Where 
was this to be ? The preceding verse informs us. " I will cause 
thee to serve thine enemies in a land which thou knowest not." Jer. 
xxiii: 40, " I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you ; and a per- 
petual shame which shall not be forgotten." The connection fully 
explains this, verse 39, " I will utterly forget you, and I will forsake 
you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers. See Jer, xx: 11. 
Mai. i: 4, "The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for- 
ever." This is an announcement of God's judgments on Edom : 
""They shall build but I will throw down ; and they shall call them 
the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord hath 
indignation forever." 

EVERLASTING SHAME AND CONTEMPT. 

Dan. xii: 2, " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever- 
lastmg contempt." When was this to take place.'* " At that time." 
What time "i Verse 31, chap, xi, speaks of the coming of" the abom- 
ination that maketh desolate." Jesus says, Matt, xxiv: 15, 16, 
Luke xxi: 20, 21, "When ye therefore (the disciple?) shall see the 
abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in 
the holy place, then let them which be in Judea flee to the moun- 
tains. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, 
then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which 
are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the 
midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries en- 
ter thereinto." Daniel says this was to be (xii : 7) " When he shall have 
accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people." And he says 
" At that time there shall be a time of trouble, such as there never 
was since there was a nation even to that same time." Jesus says, 
** For then shall be great tribulations, such as was not since the be- 
ginning of the world to this time ; no, nor ever shall be.*' And when 
that was Jesus tells us: " This generation shall not pass away, till all 
these things be fulfilled." The events discussed in Daniel are the 
same as those in Matt, xxiv, and came in this world in the generation 
that crucified Jesus. 

DUST OF THE EARTH. 

The phrase sleeping in the dust of the earth, is of course employed 
figuratively, to indicate sloth, spiritual lethargy, as in Ps. xliv: 25 ; Isa. 
xxv: 12; xxvi: 5; I Tim. v: 6; Rev. iii: i, " For our soul is bowed down 
to the dust." "And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall 
he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to tlie dust." 



38 Aion — Aidnos. 

" For he bringeth down them that dwell on high;* the lofty city, he 
layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth i: 
even to the dust." " But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she 
liveth." " I know thy works ; that thou hast a name, and that thou 
livest and art dead." 

It was a prophecy of the moral awakening that came at the time ot~ 
the advent of Jesus, and was then fulfilled. When we come to Matt. 
xxiv and xxv we shall see the exact nature of this judgment. Walter 
Balfour describes it,45 "They,"' (those who obeyed the call of Jesus) 
" heard the voice of the Son of God, and lived." See John v : 21, 25, 
28, 29, Eph. v: 14. The rest kept on till the wrath of God came on 
them to the uttermost. They all, at last, awoke ; but it was to shame 
and everlasting contempt, in being dispersed among all nations, and 
they have become a by-word and an hissing even unto this day. 
Jeremiah in chapter xxiii: 39, 40, predicted this very punishment and 
calls it an "everlasting reproach and a perpetual shame." 

These few passages, not one of which conveys a hint of endless 
punishment, are all that connect our word denoting duration with 
punishment in the Old Testament. 

Out of m.ore than five hundred occurrences of our disputed word 
in the Old Testament, more than four hundred denote limited dura- 
tion, so that the great preponderance of Old Testament usage fuliy 
agrees with the Greek classics. The remaining instances follow the 
rule given by the best lexicographers, that it only means endless when 
it derives its meaning 01 endlessness from the nature of the subject 
with which it is connected. 

Dr. Beecher-^^ remarks that the sense of endless given to the aion- 
ian phraseology " fills the Old Testament with contradictions, for it 
would make it declare the absolute eternity of systems which it often 
and emphatically declares to be temporary. Xor can it be said that 
aidnios denotes lasting as long as the nature of things permits. The 
Mosaic ordinances might have lasted at least to the end of the world, 
but did not. Moreover, on this principle the exceptions to the 
true sense of ihe word exceed its proper use ; for in the jnajority of 
cases in the Old Testament aidnios is applied to that which is limited and 
temporary?^ 

Xow if endless punishment awaits millions of the human race, and 
if it is denoted by this word, is it possible that only David, Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Daniel, and Malachi use the word to define punishment^ 

(45) Second Inquirj-. 

(46) Christian Union. 



■ The Old Testament Usage. 39 

in all less than a dozen times, while Job, Moses, Joshua, Ruth, Ezra, 
Nehemiah, Esther, Solomon, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, 
Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, and Zacha- 
riah never employ it thus ? Such silence is criminal, on the popular 
hypothesis. These holy men should and would have made every 
sentence bristle with the word, and thus have borne the awful mes- 
sage to the soul with an emphasis that could be neither resisted nor 
disputed. The fact that the word is so seldom, and by so few ap- 
plied to punishment, and never in the Old Testament to punishment 
beyond death, demonstrates that it cannot mean endless. 

TESTIMONY OF SCHOLARS. 

The best critics concede that the doctrine of endless punishment 
is not taught in the Old Testament. But the word in dispute is 
found in connection with punishment in the Old Testament. This is 
a concession that the word has no such meaning in the Old Testa- 
ment. Milman : "The lawgiver (Moses) maintains a profound silence 
on that fundamental article, if not of political, at least of religious 
legislation — rewards and punishments in another life." Warburton : 
"In no one place of the Mosaic institutes is there the least mention 
of the rewards and punishments of another life." Paley, Jahn, 
Whately are to the same purport, and H. W. Beecher says, " If we had 
only the Old Testament we could not tell if there were any future 
punishment," ^^ 

We should then conclude that the word means one thing in the Old 
Testament and another in the New, did we not find that the same 
meaning continues in the New that we have found to prevail uni- 
formly in the Old Testament, and in antecedent and contemporane- 
ous Greek literature. 

THREE QUESTIONS 

Here press the mind with irresistible force, and they can only receive 
one answer, ist, Had God intended endless punishment, would the Old 
Testament have failed to reveal it '^. 2d, If God does not announce 
it in the Old Testament, is it supposable that he has revealed it else- 
where.'* 3d, Would he for thousands of years conceal so awful a des- 
tiny from millions whom he had created and exposed to it .'^ No 
child of God ought to be willing to impeach his Heavenly Father l:)y 
withholding an indignant negative to these (questions. 



(47) Hist. Jews vol. i: p. 117; Div. Leg. vol iii : pp. i 2 vo!. v : Sermons xiii : Archncolo£jy 
p. 398 ; Essays, p. 44. 



4^ Awn — Aionios. 



3. — JEWISH GREEK USAGE. 

Those Jews who were contemporary with Christ, but who wrote 
in Greek, will teach us how they understood the word. Of course 
when Jesus used it, he employed it as they understood it. 

Josephus''^ applies the word to the imprisonment to which John the 
tyrant was condemned by the Romans ; to the reputation of Herod ; 
to the everlasting memorial erected in re- building the temple, already 
destroyed, when he wrote ; to the everlasting worship in the temple, 
which, in the same sentence he says was destroyed ; and he styles 
the time between the promulgation of the law and his writing a long 
aioii. To accuse him of attaching any other meaning than that of 
indefinite duration to the word, is to accuse him of stultifying him- 
self. But when he writes to describe endless duration he employs 
other, and less equivocal terms. Alluding to the Pharisees, he says : 

"They believe that the wicked are detained in an everlasting pris- 
on [eirgmon aidio7i\ subject to eternal punishment " \aidios ti??iona\ : 
and the Essenes [another Jewish sect] "allotted to bad souls a dark, 
tempestuous place, full of never-ceasing punishment [timoria adialeip- 
tori\^ where they suffer a deathless punishment, \athanaton timoria?i\y 

It is true he sometimes applies aionion to punishment, but this is 
not his usual custom, and he seems to have done this as one might 
use the word great to denote eternal duration, that is an indefinite 
term to describe infinity. But aidion and athanato?i are his favorite 
terms. These are unequivocal. Were only aionion used to define the 
Jewish idea of the duration of future punishment, we should have no 
proof that it was supposed to be endless. 

Philo, who was contemporary with Christ, generally used aidion to 
denote endless, and always used aionion to de scribe temporary dura- 
tion. Dr. Mangey, in his edit. on of Philo, says he never used aionion 
for interminaole duration. lie uses the exact phraseology of 
Matthew, xxv ; 46, precisely as Christ used it. " It is oetter not to 
promise than not to give prompt assistance, for no blame follows in 
the former case, but in the latter there is dissatisfaction from the 
weaker class, and a deep hatred and everlasting punishment \_kolasis 
aionios] from such as are more powerful." Here we have the exact 
terms employed by our Lord, to show that aionion did not mean 
endless but did mean limited duration in the time of Christ. 

(48) Antiq.— Wars, 



The New Testament Usage. 41 

Philo always uses athanaton^ ateleuteton or aidion to denote endless, 
and aidnion for temporary duration. 

Stephens, in his Thesaurus, quotes from a Jewish work, . [^^Z^;;;^. 
Parab?[ " These they called aidntos, hearing that they had performed 
the sacred rites for three entire generations y This shows conclusively 
that the expression "three generations" was then one full equivalent 
oi aidnion. Now these eminent scholars were Jews who wrote in 
Greek, and who certainly knew the meaning of the words they em- 
ployed, and they give to the aionian words the meaning that we are 
contending for, indefinite duration, to be determined by the subject. 

Thus the Jews of our Savior's time avoided using the word aidnion 
to denote endless duration, for applied all through the Bible to tem- 
porary affairs, it would not teach it. If Jesus intended to teach the 
doctrine held by the Jews, would he not have used the terms they 
used? Assuredly; but he did not. He threatened age-lasting, or 
long-enduring discipline to the believers in endless punishment. 
Aidfiion was his word while theirs was aidion, adialeipto^i, or atha?iaton, 
— thus rejecting their doctrines by not only not employing their 
phraseology, but by using always and only those words connected 
-with punishment, that denote limited suffering. 

And, still further to show that he had no sympathy with those 
cruel men who procured his death, Jesus said to his disciples : 
" Take heed and beware of the leaven [doctrine] of the Pharisees 
and the Sadducees" [believers in endless misery and believers in de- 
struction]. 

Had aidnion been the strongest word, especially had it denoted 
endless duration, who does not see that it would have been m general 
use as applied to punishment, by the Jewish Greeks of nineteen cen- 
turies ago .'' 

We thus have an unbroken chain of Lexicography, and Classic, Old 
Testament, and Contemporaneous Usage, all allowing to the word the 
meaning we claim for it. Indefinite duration is the meaning gen- 
erally given from the beginning down to the New Testament. 

4.— THE NEW TESTAMENT USAGE. 

ATON THE SAME IN BOTH TESTAMENTS. 

Speaking to those who understood the Old Testament, Jesus and 
.his Apostles employed such words as are used in that book, in the 
same sense in which they are there used. Not to do so would be to 
■mislead their hearers unless they explained a change of meaning. 



42 Aion — Aioiiios. 

There is certainly no proof that the word changed its meaning be- 
tween the Old and New Testaments, accordingly we are under obli- 
gation to give it precisely the meaning in the New it had in the Old 
Testament. This we have seen to be indefinite duration. An exam- 
ination of the New Testament will show that the meaning is the 
same, as it should be, in both Testaments. 

NUMBER OF TIMES FOUND AND HOW TRANSLATED. 

The different forms of the word occur in the New Testament one 
hundred and ninety-nine times, if I am not mistaken, the noun one 
hundred and twenty-eight, and the adjective seventy-one times. 

Bruder's Concordance, latest edition, gives ai'on one hundred and 
twenty-six times, and ai'onios seventy-two times in the New Testament^ 
instead of the former ninety-four, and the latter sixty-six times, as 
Professor Stuart, following Knapp's Greek text, declares. 

In our common translation the noun is rendered seventy-two times 
ever^ twice eternal^ thirty-six times worlds seven times never ^ three 
times evermore^ twice worlds^ twice ages^ once course^ once woi-ld 
without end, and twice it is passed over without any word affixed as 
a translation of it. The adjective is rendered once ever, forty-two 
times eternal, three times world, twenty-five times everlasting, and 
oncQ former ages. 

I THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST. 

Ten times it is applied to the Kingdom of Christ. Luke i : t^t,^ 
"And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever ; and of his 
kingdom there shall be no end." See also i : 55 ; Heb. vi : 20 : vii ; 
17, 21 ; I Pet. iv : II ; II Pet. i : 11, iii : 18 ; Rev. i : 6 ; xi : 15. 
But the Kingdom of Christ is to end, and he is to surrender all do- 
minion to the Father, therefore endless duration is not taught in 
these passages. See i Cor. xv. 

2 THE JEWISH AGE. 

It is applied to the Jewish age more than thirty times : i Cor. x : 
II, " Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples ; and 
they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the 
luorld dixe come." Consult also Matt., xii : 32 ; xiii : 22, 39, 40, 49; 
xxiv : 3 ; xxviii : 20 ; Mark iv : 19 ; Luke i : 70 ; xvi : 8 ; xx : 34 ; 
John ix: 32 ; Acts iii : 21 ; xv : 18 ; Rom. xii : 2 ; I Cor. ii : 6, 7, 8, 
iii : 18 ; II Cor. iv : 4; Gal. i : 4 ; Eph. i : 21, ii : 2, iii : 9 ; I Tim. 
vi : 17 ; II Tim. iv : 10 ; Titus ii : 12 ; Heb. ix : 26. But the Jewish 



The Nciv Teslanunt Usage 43 

age ended with the setting up of the Kingdom of Christ. There^ 
fore the word does not denote endless duration here. 

3 THE PLURAL FORM. 

It is used in the plural in Eph. iii : 21 ; "the age of the agesP 
iou aionos ton aionon. Heb. i : 2, xi : 3, " By whom he made the 
worlds." " The worlds were framed by the word of God." There 
can be but one eternity. To say" By whom he made the eternities" 
would be to talk nonsense. Endless duration is not inculcated in 
these texts. 

4 THE SENSE OF FINITE DURATION. 

The word clearly teaches finite duration in such passages as Rom. 
xvi : 25 ; II Cor. iv : 17 ; II Tim. 1:9; Philemon 15 ; Titus i : 2. 
Read Rom. xvi : 25 : "Since the world (eternity.'*) began." 
II Cor. iv : 17 : " A far more exceeding eternal weight of glory." 
Here " and" is a word supplied by the translators, and the literal is 
"an excessively exceeding aionian weight." Bat endless cannot be 
exceeded. Therefore aionion does not here mean eternal. 

5 — EQUIVALENT TO NOT. 

The word is used as equivalent to not in Matt, xxi : 19 ; Mark xi : 
14 ; John xiii : 8 ; I Cor. viii : 13. "Peter said unto him 'thou 
shalt never wasli my feet','' is a specimen of this use of the word. 
It only denotes eternal by accommodation. 

6 — APPLIED TO GOD, ETC. 

It is applied to God, Christ, the Gospel, the good, the Resurrec- 
tion world, etc., in which the sense of endless is allowable because 
imputed to the word by the subject treated, as declared by 
Taylor and Fuerst, on page 17 of this book, in Rom. i : 25, 
ix : 5, xi : 36, xvi : 27 ; Gal. 1:5; Phil, iv : 20 ; I Tim. 1:17; II 
Tim. iv : 18 ; I John ii : 17 ; I Peter v : 11 ; Rev. vii : 12, xv : 7 ; 
Rom. xvi : 26 ; II Cor. iv : 18, v : i ; II Tim. ii : 10 ; Heb. vi : 2, 
ix : 12, 14, 15, xiii : 20 ; I P-et. v : 10 ; Rev. iv : 10 ; John viii : 35, 
xii : 34, xiv : 16 ; II Cor. ix 19, xi : 31 ; Gal. i : 5 ; Eph. iii : ir ; 
II Tim. iv : 18 ; Heb. vii : 24, 28, xiii : 8, 21 ; I Pet. i : 25 ; II Pet. 
iii : 18 ; II John 2 ; Jude 25 ; Rev. i : 18, iv : 9, 10, v : 13, x : 6,. 
xxii : 5. 

7. LIFE ETERNAL. 

It is applied to life, "Everlasting and Eternal Life." But this 
phrase does not so much denote the duration, as the quality of the 
Blessed Life. It seems to have the sense of durable in these 
passages: Matt, xix : 16, 29, xxv : 46 ; Mark x : 17, 30 ; Luke x : 



44 Aion — Aianios. 

25, xvi: 9, xviii : 18, 30 : John iii: i^, 16, ^6, iv : 14, 2i^, v: 24, 39, 
vi: 27,40,47, 54. 68, x: 28, xii : 25 50. x^-ii : 2, 3: Rom. ii: 7, 
v: 21, vi: 22. 23 , Gal. vi : S: il Thess. ii : 16: I Tim. i: t6, \d: 
12 ; Titus i : 2. iii : 7 ; Heb. v : 9 : I John i : 2. ii : 2-., iii : 15, v : 
II. 13, 20 ; Jude 21 : Mark x : ^o : Luke xviii : 30; John iv : 14, vi : 
51. 58, ^-iii :5T, 52. x : 2S. xi : 26. See this subject treated further on. 

PASSAGES DEXOTIXG LIMITED DURATION. 

Let us state more definitely several passages in which all will 
agree that the word cannot have the sense of endless. 

Matt, xxii: 22. '* The care of this world, and the deceitfulness of 
riches, choke the word." the cares of that age or " time." Verses 39, 
40, 49, *' The har\-est is the end of the world^' i. e. age^ Jewish age, 
the same taught in Matt, xxiv, which some who heard Jesus speak 
were to live to see. and did see. Luke i : ^to- " -^"^ he (Jesus) shall 
reign over the house of Jacob /or ever, and of his kingdom there 
shall be no end." The meaning is, he shall reign to the ages ( eis 
tous aionas). That long, indefinite duration is meant here, but lim- 
ited, is e\-ident from I Cor. xv : 28, " And when all things shall be 
subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto 
him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." 
His reign is for ever, /. <?., to the ages, but it is to cease. Luke i: 
55, "As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for 
ever, (to an age, atonos.) Luke i : 70. "As he spake by the mouth 
of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began," or 
*' from an age," (ap aidnos). " Of old,'* would be the plain con- 
struction. Luke xvi : 8, ** For the children of this world are in 
their generation wiser than the children oi light." That is, the peo- 
ple of that time were more prudent in the management of their 
affairs than were the Christians of that day in their plans. John 
ix : 2i-' Since the world began was it not heard that any roan 
opened the eyes of one that was bom blind." From the age, (ek 
toil aidnos ) that is from the beginning of our knowledge and his- 
tory'. Roman xvi : 25, '* Since the world began," clearly shows a 
duration less than eternity^ inasmuch as the myster\' that had been 
secret since the world began, was then revealed. The mystery was 
aionion but did not last eternally. It was " now made manifest " 
" to all nations." Phil, iv : 20. " Now unto God and our Father be 
glory for ever and ez'er,"* for the ages of the ages ( cis tous aionas ton 
aionon). (Gal. i : 5 same.) " For the eternities of the eternities,' 



The New Tcstauicni: Usace. 



45 



is an absurd expression. But ages of ages is a proper sentence. 
Eternity may be meant here, but it' the word aion expressed the idea, 
such a reduplication would be weak and improper. I Tim. vi : 17, 
*' Charge them that are rich in this 7vorldy (age or time). I Tim. 
i ; 17, "Now to the King eternal (of the ages) be glory for 
the ages of the ages^ What is this but an asscription of the 
ages to the God of the ages.^ Eternity can only be meant here 
as ages piled on ages imply long, and possibly endless duration. 
"All the ages are God's; him let the ages glorify," is the full import 
of the words. Translate the words eternity, and what nonsense, 
" Now to the God of the eternities (!) be glory for the eternities of 
the eternities (! !) Heb. i : 8, " The age of the age.'' Eph. ii ; 7. 
" That in the ages {aions) to come he might show the exceeding 
riches of his grace." Here at least two aions, eternities are to come 
Certainly one of them must end before the other begins. Eph. iii 
2T, "The generations of the age of the ages." II Tim. iv ; j8, " The 
age of the ages." The same form of expression is in Heb. xiii : 21 ; 
I Pet. iv ; II ; Rev. i ; 6, iv ; 9, v : 13, vii : 12, xiv ^ 11, xv : 7, xx : 10. 
When we read that the smoke of their torment ascends eis ai'onas 
ai'onon, for ages of ages, we get the idea of long, indefinite, but lim- 
ited duration, for as an age is limited, any number, however great, 
must be limited. The moment we say the smoke of their torment 
goes up for eternities of eternities, we transform the sacred rhetoric 
into jargon. There is but one eternity, therefore as we read of more 
than one aion., it follows that aion cannot mean eternity. Again, I 
Cor. x : II, " Our admonition, on whom the ends of the aions (ages, ta 
tele ton aionon) have come." That is, the close of the Mosaic and 
the beginning of the gospel age. How absurd to say " ends of the 
eternities ! " Here the apostle had passed more than one, and en- 
tered, consequently, upon at least a thud aion. Heb. ix : 26, " Now 
at an end of the ages.''"' Matt, xviii : 39, 40, xxiv : 4, " The conclu- 
sion of the age." Eternity has no end. And to say ends of eterni- 
ties is to talk nonsense. II Tim. ii ; 9, "Before \\\q ivorld began,'* 
/. e.y before the ai'onion times began. There was no beginning to 
eternity, therefore the adjective ai'onion here has no such meaning as 
eternal. The fact that aion is said to end and begin, is a demonstra- 
tion that it does not mean eternity. 

ABSURDITY OF POPULAR VIEWS. 

Translate the word eternity, and how absurd the Bible phraseology 
becomes ! It represents the Bible as saying, " To whom be the glo- 



46 Atoft — Aidnios. 

ry during the eternities, even to the eternities." Gal. i : 5. 
*' Now all these things happened unto them, for ensamples, and they 
are written for our admonition upon whom the e?tds of the eterni- 
ties are come." I Cor. x : 11. " That in the eternities coming 
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace." Eph. ii : 7, "The 
.mystery which hath been hid from tfie eternities and from the genera- 
tions."'' Col. i: 26. "But now once in the end of the eternities., 
hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Heb. 
ix : 26. "The harvest is the end of the eternity ^ Matt, xiii : 39. 
*' So shall it be inthe end of this eternity.'''' Matt, xiii : 40, " Tell us 
when shall these things be, and whai the sign of thy coming, and of 
the end of the eternity." Matt, xxiv: 4. But substitute " age " or 
" ages," and the sense of the Record is preserved. 

it acquires various meanings. 

This is seen in many passages. Luke xx : 34, 35. "The children 
of this world marry, and are given in marriage ; but they which shall 
be accounted worthy to obtain that world., * "^ are equal unto the an- 
gels," etc. Here "that world" [tou aidnos ekeinoic) denotes the 
eternal world, not because the word aion intrinsically means that, but 
because the resurrection state is the topic of discourse. The words 
literally mean that age or epoch, but in this instance the immortal 
world is the subject that defines the word and gives it a unique mean- 
ing. So when the word refers to God, it denotes a different dura- 
tion than when it applies to the Jewish dispensation. That in some 
of the places referred to the mooted word has the sense of endless, 
we do not question, but in all such cases it derives that meaning from 
tlie subject connected with it. *^ 

Let us indicate its varied use. Matt, vi : 13 is probably spurious ;^° 
" Thine is the glory forever^' that is through the ages. Here eter- 
nity may be implied, but the phrase " forever " literally means "for 
the ages." Mark iv : 19, same as Matt, i: 22. Mark x: 30. "But 
he shall receive a hundred fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, 
and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions ; 
and in the world to come eternal life." Literally, in the age to come 



<(4o\ Dr. Edward Beecher Seep. i7 
■(50) See Griesbach. Knapp. and Wetstein.) 



The Neiv Tesiaimnt Usas:e. 



47 



the life of that age, /. e., gospel, spiritual, Christian life. We have 
shown that the world to come denotes the Christian dispensation, — 
Mark xi : 14. "No man eat fruit of thee hereafter/.?;- ever^' that is, 
^' in the age," meaning the period of the tree's existence. — John xii : 
34. " The people answered him, We have heard out of the law that 
Christ abideth/.?/- ever •^'' (to the age). The Jews believed that their 
dispensation was to continue, and Messiah would remain as long as 
it would last. This language means that Christ was to remain 
through the Mosaic epoch. So the Jews thought — ^John xiii ; 8. 
^' Thou shalt never wash my feet " is equivalent to " Thou shalt not 
wash my feet." — John xiv; 16. " And I will pray the Father and he 
shall give you another Comforter, chat he may abide with you for 
ever,'' eis ton aidna, " unto the age," that is, accompany them into the 
coming or Christian era. — John vi : 51, 58, "If any man eat of this 
bread he shall live for ever y" eis ton aiona, into the age, that is, enjoy 
the life of the world that is to come, the Christian life. Its duration is 
not described here at all. — John viii ; t,^. "And the servant abideth 
not in the house /"^r ever j (to the age,) but the Son abideth ever." — 
The Jews are here told that their religion is to be superseded by 
Christ only. They are to leave the house because slaves to sin, while 
the Son will remain to the age — permanently, — John viii ; 51, 52. 
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying he shall 
never see death. Then said the Jews unto him. Now we know that 
thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets ; and thou 
sayest, If a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death." Moral, 
spiritual death is impossible to a man as long as he keeps the saying 
of Christ, is the full meaning of the words. 

OCCURRENCE OF THE ADJECTIVE. 

The adjective aiofitos is (incorrectly) said by Proressor Stuart to ®^ 
occur sixty-six times in the New Testament, but we make it seventy- 
two times. Of these fifty-seven are used in relation to the happiness 
of the righteous ; three in relation to God or his glory ; four are of 
a miscellaneous nature ; and seven relate to the subject of punish- 
ment. Now these fifty-seven denote indefinite duration, " everlasting 
life" being a life tha t may or may not — certainly does not always 
— endure forever 



(51) Ex. Essays p. 46. 



48 Aibn — Ai'onios. 

Thus the great preponderance of usage in the New Testament is 
indefinite duration. But if the preponderance were against this usage, 
we ought, in order to vindicate God's character, to understand it in 
the sense of limited when describing a Father's punishment of his 
children. 

APPLIED TO PUNISHMENT. 

How many times does the word in all its forms describe punish- 
ment "i Only fourteen times in thirteen passages in the entire New 
Testament, and these were uttered on ten occasions only. The Noun. 
Matt, xii : 32, Mark iii ; 29, 2 Pet. ii : 17, Jude 13, Rev. xiv: 11, xix : 
3, XX : 10. The Adjective, Matt, xviii : 8, xxv : 41, 46, Mark iii : 29, 
2 Thess. i : 9, Jude 7, Heb. vi : 2. 

Now if God's punishments are limited, we can understand how this 
word should be used only fourteen times to define them. But if they 
are endless how can we explain the employment of this equivocal 
word only fourteen times in the entire New Testament .-^ A doctrine 
that, if true, ought to crowd every sentence, frown in every line, only 
stated fourteen times, and that, too, by a word whose uniform mean- 
ing everywhere else is limited duration ! The idea is preposterous. 
Such reticence is incredible. If the word denotes limited duration^ 
the punishments threatened in the New Testament are like those that 
experience teaches follow transgression. But if it means end- 
less, how can we account for the fact that neither Luke nor John re- 
cords one instance of its use by the Savior, and Matthew but four, and 
Mark but two, and Paul employs it but twice in his ministry, while John 
and James in their epistles never allude to it ? Such silence is an 
unanswerable refutation of all attempts to foist the meaning of end- 
less into the word. " Everlasting fire " occurs only three times, " ever- 
lasting punishment '' only once, and " eternal damnation " once only. 
Shall any one dare suppose that the New Testament reveals endless 
torment, and that out of one hundred and ninety-nine occurrences 
of the word aio7i it is applied to punishment so seldom, and that so 
many of those who wrote the New Testament never use the word at 
all ? No. The New Testament usage agrees with the meaning in 
the Greek classics, and in the Old Testament. Does it not strike 
the candid mind as impossible that God should have concealed this 
doctrine for thousands of years, and that for forty centuries of revela- 
tion he continually employed to teach limited duration the identical 
word that he at length stretched into the signification of endless du- 
ration } The word means limited duration all through the Old Tes- 



The New Testattient Usage. 49 

tament ; it never had the meaning of endless duration among those 
who spoke the language, (as we have demonstrated,) but Jesus an- 
nounced the doctrine of endless punishment, and selected as the 
Greek word to convey his meaning the very word that in the Classics 
and the Septuagint never contained any such thought, when there 
were several words in the copious Greek tongue that unequivocally 
conveyed the idea of interminable duration ! Even if Matthew wrote 
in Hebrew or in Syro-Chaldaic, he gave a Greek version of his gospel^ 
and in that rejected every word that carries the meaning of endless- 
ness, and appropriated the one which taught nothing of the kind. 
If this were the blunder of an incompetent translator, or the imper- 
fect record of a reckless scribe, we could understand it, but to say 
that the inspired pen of the evangelist has deliberately or carelessly 
jeoparded the immortal welfare of countless millions by employing a 
word to teach the doctrine of ceaseless woe that up to that very hour 
taught only limited duration, is to make a declaration that carries its 
own refutation. 

We come now to the sheet-anchor of the great heresy of the par- 
tialist church, 

THE PRINCIPAL PROOF-TEXT 

of an error hoary with antiquity, and not yet wholly abandoned. 
Matt. XXV : 46, is the great proof-text of the doctrine of endless pun- 
ishment : "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, and 
the righteous into life eternal." We shall endeavor to establish the 
following points against the erroneous view of this Scripture, i. The 
punishment is not for unbelief, but for not benefiting the needy. 
2. The general antecedent usage of the word denoting duration here, 
in the Classics and in the Old Testament, proves that the duration is 
limited. 3. One object of punishment being to improve the punished, 
the punishment here must be limited; 4. The events here described 
took place in this world, and must therefore be of limited duration. 
5. The Greek word kolasin, rendered punishment, should be rendered 
chastisement, as reformation is implied in its meaning. 

I. THE AIONIAN PUNISHMENT IS FOR EVIL WORKS. 

Practical benevolence is the virtue whose reward is here announced, 
and unkindness is the vice whose punishment is here threatened, and 
not faith and unbelief, on which heaven and hell are popularly pre- 
dicated. Matt. XXV : 34-45. *' Then shall the King say unto them 



5© Aidn — Aidnios. 

on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king- 
dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world : For I was 
a hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
drink: I was a stranger and ye took me,in : Naked, and ye clothed 
me ; 1 was sick, and ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came 
unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying. Lord, when 
saw we thee a hungered, and fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee 
drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in ? or naked, and 
clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came 
unto thee ? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I 
say unto you. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren^ ye have dojie it unto me. Then shall he say unto 
them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting 
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels : For I was a hungered, 
and ve gave me no meat : I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : I 
was a strang-er, and ve took me not in : naked and ve clothed me 
not : sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they 
also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered, or 
athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not 
minister unto thee ? Then shall he answer them, saying. Verily I sa}'' 
unto you, Iiiasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these ^ ye did it 
not to me.''* 

If cruelty to the poor — neglect of them even, — constitutes rejec- 
tion of Christ — as is plainly taught here — and all who are guilty are 
to suffer endless torment " who then can be saved?" The single con- 
sideration that works, and not faith are here made the test of dis- 
cipleship, cuts away the foundation of the popular view of this text. 

2. THE WORD AIOXIOX DENOTES LIMITED DURATION. 

This appears in Classic and Old Testament usage. It is impossi- 
ble that Jesus should have used the word rendered everlasting in a 
different sense than we have shown to have been its meaning in an- 
tecedent literature. 

3. god's punishments are REMEDIAL. 

All God's punishments are those of a Father, and must therefore 
be adapted to the improvement of his children. Heb. xii : 5, " My 
son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when 
thou art rebuked of him : For whom the Lordlovethhe chasteneth, 
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chasten- 
ing, God dealeth with you as with sons : for what son is he whom the 



The New Testament Usage. 51 

father chasteneth not ? Furthermore, we have had fathers of our 
flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not 
much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live ? For 
they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure ; but 
he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no 
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; never- 
theless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them 
which are exercised thereby .''' Prov. iii : 11, 12." My son, despise not the 
chastening of the Lord ; neither be weary of his correction : For 
whom the Lord loveth he correcteth ; even as a father the son in 
whom he delighteth." Lam. iii: 31,33. "For the Lord will not 
cast off forever : But though he cause grief, yet will he have com- 
passion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not 
afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." See also Job v : xxv : 
Lev. xxvi: Psalms cxxix: 67, 71, 75 ; Jer. iirip. 

4. THESE EVENTS HAVE OCCURRED. 

The events here described took place in this world within thirty 
years of the time when Jesus spoke. They are now past. In Matt, 
xxiv : 4, the disciples asked our Lord when the then existing age 
would end. The word {aim) is unfortunately translated world. 
Had he meant world he would have employed kosmos^ which means 
world, as ai'on does not. After describing the particulars he announced 
that they would all be fulfilled, and the ai'on end in that generation, 
before some of his auditors should die. If he was correct the end 
came then. And this is demonstrated by a careful study of the en- 
tire discourse, running through Matthew xxiv and xxv. The disci- 
ples asked Jesus how they should know his coming and the e7id oi 
the age. They did not inquire concerning the end of the actual 
world, as it is incorrectly translated, but age. This question Jesus 
answered by describing the signs so that they, his questioners, the 
disciples themselves, might perceive the approach of the end of the 
Jewish dispensation (aidn). He speaks fifteen times in the discourse 
of his speedy coming, (Matt, xxiv : 3, 27, 30, 37, 39, 42, 46, 48, 50, 
and xxv: 6. 10, 13, 19, 27, 31). He addresses those who shall be 
alive at his coming. Matt, xxiv : 6. " Ye shall hear of wars, etc." 
20. " Pray that your flight be not in the winter." t^t^, 34. " So like- 
wise _>'^ whenjp^ shall see all these things, know that it is near, ^2'^« at 
the doors. Verily I say unto you. This generation shall 7iot pass, till 
^11 these things be fulfilled.'' 



52 A ion — Aidnios 

Campbell, Clarke, Wakefield, and Newton ^^ translate the phrase^ 
end of the world {sunteleia tou atones) ''conclusion of the age," " end 
of this dispensation." The question was, then, what shall indicate 
thy second coming and the end of the Mosaic economy {aion^} " When 
shall ^// these things be fulfilled?" Mark xiii : 1,34. He spoke of 
the temple (Luke xxi : 5,7,) sayirg one stone should not be left on 
another, and the question of his disciples was, how shall we know 
when this is to take place ? The answer is, ' Ye shall hear of wars. ''' 
xxiv: 6. " Ye shall see the abomination of desolation." 15. "Pray 
that j^'<7z/r flight be not in winter." 20. The adverbs "Then" and 
"When " connect all the events related in the two chapters in one 
unbroken series. And what infallible token did he give that these 
events would occur " then .''" Matt, xxiv : 34. " Verily I say unto you 
this generation shall not pass till ail these things be fulfilled." What 
things ? The " son of man coming in his glory in the clouds," and 
the end of the existing aion, or age. Mark phrases it: "This gen- 
eration shall not pass till all these things be done." See Luke xxi: 
25, 32. This whole account is a parable describing the end of the 
Jewish aion^ age, or economy, signalized by the destruction of Jeru- 
salem, and the establishment of the new aion, world, or age to come, 
that is the Christian dispensation. Now on the authority of Jesus 
himself the aion then existing ended within a generation, namely, 
about A. D. 70. Hence those who were sent away into aionion pun- 
ishment, or the punishment of that aion, were sent into a condition 
corresponding in duration to the meaning of the word aion, i. e., age- 
lasting. A punishment cannot be endless, when defined by an ad- 
jective derived from a noun describing an event, the end of which 
is distinctly stated to have come. 

5. THE WORD TRANSLATED PUNISHMENT MEANS IMPROVEMENT. 

The word is Kolasin. It is thus authoritatively defined : Greetifieldy 
" Chastisement, punishment." Hedericus, " The trimming of the lux- 
uriant branches of a tree or vine to improve it and make it fruitful." 
Donnegan, " The act of clipping or pruning — restriction, restraint, re- 
proof, check, chastisement." Grotius, " The kind of punishment 
which tends to the improvement of the criminal, is what the Greek 
philosophers called kolasis or chastisement." Liddell, " Pruning, 
checking, punishment, chastisement, correction." Max Muller, " Do 
we want to know what was uppermost in the minds of those who 

(52) Com. in loc. 



'j he New Tesiamejit Usage. 53 

formed the word for punishment, the Latin poena or punio, to punish, 
the root pu in Sanscrit, which means to cleanse, to purify, tells us that 
the Latin derivation was originally formed, not to express mere 
striking or torture, but cleansing, correcting, delivering from the 
stain of sin.*' That it had this meaning in Greek usage we cite 
Plato : ^^ " For the natural or accidental evils of others, no one gets 
angry, or admonishes, or teaches or punishes [kolazei) them, but we 
pity those afflicted with such misfortunes. * * P'^or if, O Socrates, you 
will consider what is the design of punishing {kolazei?i) ihe wicked, 
this of itself will show you that men think virtue something that may 
be acquired; for no one punishes {kolazei) the wicked, looking to the 
past only, simply for the wrong he has done, — that is, no one does this 
thing who does not act like a wild beast, desiring only revenge, with- 
out thought — hence he who seeks to punis-h {kolazein) with reason, 
does not punish for the sake of the past wrong deed, * * but for the 
sake of the future, that neither the man himself who is punished, 
may do wrong again, nor any other who has seen him chastised. And 
he who entertains this thought, must believe that virtue may be 
taught, and he punishes {kolazei^ for the piupose of deterring from 
wickedness?"* Like many other words this is not always used in its 
exact and full sense. The apocrypha employs it as the synonym 
of suffering, regardless of reformation. See Wis. iii : ii.xvi. i; i 
Mac. vii : 7. See also Josephus. ^* It is found but four times in the 
New Testament. Acts iv : 21, the Jews let John and Peter go, 
^'finding nothing further how they might punish them " {kolazo). Did 
they not aim to reform them } Was not their punishment to cause 
them to return to the Jewish fold.'' From their standpoint the word 
was certainly used to convey the idea of reformation, i John iv : 18. 
"" Fear hath torment y Here the word " torment " should be restraint. 
It is thus translated in the Emphatic Diaglot. The idea is, if we 
have perfect love we do not fear God, but if we fear we are restrained 
from loving him. " Fear hath restraint." The word is used here 
with but one of its meanings. In 2 Peter ii ; 9, the apostle uses the 
word as our Lord did: the unjust are reserved unto the day of judg- 
ment to be punished {kolazomenous). This accords exactly with the 
lexicography of the word, and the general usage in the Bible and in 
Greek literature agrees with the meaning given by the lexicographers. 
Now, though the word rendered punishment is sometimes used to 

^53) Protag. Sec. 38, vol. i, p. 252. 
^4) War. 3, 5, 8, Ant. 2,4, 5, etc. 



54 At^i — Aidnios. 

signify suffering alone, by Josephus and others^ surely Divine Inspira- 
tion will use it in its exact sense. We must therefore be certain that 
in the New Testament, when used by Jesus to designate divine pun- 
ishment, it is generally used with its full meaning. The lexicog- 
raphers and Plato, above, show us what that is, suffering, restraint, 
followed by correction, improvement. 

From this meaning of the word, torment is by no means excluded. 
God does indeed torment his children when they go astray. He is a 
" consuming fire," and burns with terrible severity towards us when 
we sin, but it is not because he hates but because he loves us. He 
is a refiner's fire tormenting the immortal gold of humanity in the 
crucible of punishment, until the dross of sin is purged away. Mai. ii: 
2, 3, " But who may abide the day of his coming } and who shall stand 
when he appeareth 1 for he is like a refiner s fire and like fuller's soap. 
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver : and he "^VzXS. purify 
the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold or silver, that they may offer 
unto the Lord an offering in righteousness P Therefore kolasis is just 
the word to describe his punishments. They do for the soul what 
pruning does for the tree, what the crucible of the refiner does for 
ihe silver ore. 

Even if aidnion and kolasis were both of doubtful signification, and 
were we only uncertain as to their meaning we ought to give God ihe 
benefit of the doubt and understand the word in a way to honor him, 
that is, in a limited sense, but when all but universal usage ascribes to 
aidnion limited duration, and the word kolasin is declared by all author- 
ities to mean pruning, discipline, it is astonishing that a Christian 
teacher should be found to imagine that when both words are together, 
they can mean anything else than temporary punishment ending m 
reformation, especially in a discourse in which it is expressly declared 
that the complete fulfillment was in this life, and within a generation 
of the time when the prediction was uttered. 

Therefore, (i) the fulfillment of the language in this life, (2) the 
meaning of aidnion^ (3) and the meaning of kolasis, demonstrate that 
the penalty threatened in Matt, xxv: 46, is a limited one. It is a 
threefold cord that human skill cannot break. Prof. Tayler Lewis 
thus translates Matt, xxv: 46. "These shall go away into the pun- 
ishment (the restraint, imprisonment,) of the world to come, and those 
into the life of the world to come." And he says ^'that is all that 7ve 
can etymologicaly or exe;;t-Ucaily make of the word in this passage.'"* 

Hence, also, the zoeii aidnion (life eternal) is not endless, but is a 
condition resulting from a good character. The intent of the phrase 



The New Testament Usage. 55 

is not to teach immortal happiness, nor does kolasin ai'onion indicate 
endless ^punishment. Both phrases, regardless of duration refer to 
the limited results wronging or blessing others, extending 
possibly through Messiah's reign until "the end" (i Cor. xv.). Both 
describe consequences of conduct to befall those referred to at his 
''coming," then " at hand," and all those consequences antedate the 
immortal state. 

A COMMON OBJECTION NOTICED. 

" Then eternal life is not endless, for the same Greek adjective 
qualifies life and punishment." This, does not follow, for the word 
is used in Greek in different senses in the same sentence ; as Hab. 
iii : 6. " And the everlasting mountains were scattered — his ways are 
everlasting!" Suppose we apply the popular argument here. The 
mountains and God must be of equal duration, for the same word 
is applied to both. Both are temporal or both are endless. But y 
the mountains are expressly stated to be temporal — they " were 
scattered," — therefore God is not eternal. Or God is eternal and 
therefore the mountains must be. But they cannot be, for they were 
scattered. The argument does not hold water. The aidnion moun- 
tains are all to be destroyed. Hence the word may de7iote both lim- 
ited and unlimited duration in the same passage^ the different meanings 
^0 be determined by the subject treated. 

But it may be said that this phrase " everlasting " or " eternal life " 
does not usually denote endless existence, but the life of the gos- 
pel, spiritual life, the Christian life, regardless of iis duration. In 
more than fifty of the seventy-two times that the adjective occurs in 
the New Testament, it describes life. What is eternal life.'* Let the 
Scriptures answer. John iii : t^6^ " He that believeth on the Son 
hath everlasting life." John v : 24, " He that believeth on him that 
sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, 
but IS PASSED from death unto life." John vi : 47, " He that believeth 
on vat hath everlasting life." So verse 54. John xvii : 3, "This is 
LIFE ETERNAL to know thee., the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom 
thou hast sent.'' Eternal life is the life of the gospel. Its duration 
depends on the possessor's fidelity. It is no less the aidnion life, if 
one abandon it in a month after acquiring it. It consists in know- 
ing, loving and serving God. It is the Christian lite, regardless of 
its duration. How often the good fall from grace. Believing, they 
have the aidnion life, but they lose it by a]:)ostasy. Notoriously it i? 
not, in thousands of cases, endless. The life is of an indefinite 
length, so that the usage of the adjective in the New Ttstnm ; t is 



56 Aioft — Aidnios. 

altogether in favor of giving the word the sense of limited duration. 
Hence Jesus does not say" he that believeth shall enjoy endless hap- 
piness," but "he hath everlasting life," and " /i" passed from death 
unto life." 

It scarcely need here be proved that the ai'onion lite can be ac- 
quired and lost. Heb. vi : 4, " For 'it is impossible for those who 
were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and 
were made partakers of the holy Ghost, and have tasted the good 
word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall 
fall away, to renew them again unto repentance : seeing they crucify 
to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." 
A life that can thus be lost is not intrinsically endless. 

That the adjective is thus consistently used to denote indefinite 
duration will appear from several illustrations, some of which we 
have already given. 2 Cor. iv : 17, "A far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory," or, as the original reads, " exceeding an 
aidnion weight of glory excessively." Now eternal, endless, cannot 
be exceeded, but aidnion can be, therefore aidnion is not eternal. 
Again, Rev. xiv : 6, " The everlasting gospel." The gospel is good 
news. When all shall have learned its truths it will no longer be 
news. There will be no such thing as gospel extant. Faith will be 
fruition, hope lost in sight, and the aidnion gospel, like the aidnion 
covenant of the elder dispensation, will be abrogated, not destroyed, 
but fulfilled and passed away. Again, 2 Pet. i : 11, " The everlasting 
kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." This kingdom is to 
be dissolved. Jesus is to surrender his dominion, i Cor. xv : 24, 
*' Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom 
^o God even the Father," etc. The everlasting kingdom of Christ 
will end. 

The word may mean endless when applied to life, and not when 
applied to punishment, even in the same sentence, though we think 
duration is not considered so much as the intensity of joy or the sor- 
row in either case. 

WORDS TEACHING ENDLESS DURATION. 

But the Blessed Life has not been left dependent on so equivocal a 
word. The soul's immortal and happy existence is taught in the 
New Testament, by words that in the Bible are never applied 
to anything that is of limited duration. They are applied to God and 
the soul's happy existence only. These words are akafaluton, imperisha- 
ble ; ^a7narantos and a?narantinos, unfading; aphtharto^ immortal, in- 



The New Testament Usage, 57 

corruptible ; and athanasian, immortality. J^et us quote some of the 
passages in which these words occur : 

Heb. vii : 15,16, "And it is 3/et far more evident : for that after 
the similitude of Melchizedek there ariseth another priest, who is 
made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the 
power of an endless {akatalutos^ imperishable) life." i Pet. i : 3, 4, 
" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ac- 
cording to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively 
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inher- 
itance incorruptible^ {aphtharton^ and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
{amaranton) away." i Pet. v : 4. " And when the chief Shepherd 
■shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not {a7na- 
*-antinos) away." i Tim, i: 17, "Now unto the King eternal, im- 
mortal^ {aphtharto,) invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory 
forever and ever, Amen." Rom. i: 23, *' And changed the glory of 
the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man." 
I Cor. ix : 25, " Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown ; but 
we an incorruptible." 1 Cor. xv : 51-54, " Behold, I shew you a mys- 
tery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, 
in the twinkhng of an, eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall 
•sound, and the dead shall be raised incorj-uptible, {aphthartoi,) and we 
shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, 
\(aphthari>ian^ and this mortal must put on immortality {athanasian) . 
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, {aphtharsian,) 
and this mortal shall have put on im7?iortality, {atha?iasian,) then shall 
Tdc brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up 
in victory." Rom. ii : 7, " To them who by patient continuance in 
well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality^ {aphtharsia,) 
eternal life." i Cor. xv : 42, "So also is the resurrection of the 
dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption {aphthar- 
sia).''' See also verse 50. 2 Tim. i : 10, " Who brought life and im- 
mortality (aphtharsian) to light, through the gospel." i Tim. vi : 16, 
"Who only hath immortality [athanasian^y 

Now these words are applied to God and the soul's happiness. 
They are words that in the Bible are never applied to punishment, 
or to anything perishable. They would have been affixed to punish- 
ment had the Bible intended to teach endless punishment. And cer- 
tainly they show the error of those who declare that the indefinite 
word aibnion is all the word, or the strongest word in the Bible (\^ 
clarative of the endlessness of the life beyond the grave. A little 
more study of the subject would prevent such reckless statements 



Aid?t — Ai'onios. 

and would show that the happy, endless life does not depend at all on 
the pet word of the partialist critics. 

THOMAS DE QUIISCEY's VIEWS. 

It will be of interest to give here the views of Thomas De Quincey, 
one of the most accurate students of language, and profoundest 
reasoners and thinkers among English scholars. He states the facts 
of the case with almost perfect accuracy : " I used to be annoyed 
and irritated by the false interpretation given to the Greek word 
aion^ and given necessarily, therefore, to the Greek adjective ai'onios as 
its immediate derivative. It was not so much the falsehood of this 
interpretation, as the narrowness of that falsehood that disturbed me. 

The reason which gives to this 
word ai'onion what I do not scruple to call a dreadful importance, is 
the same reason, and no other, which prompted the dishonesty con- 
cerned in the ordinary interpretation of this word. The word hap- 
pened to connect itself — but that was no practical concern of mine, 
— me it had not biased in the one direction, nor should it have 
biased any just critic in the counter direction — happened, I say, to 
connect itself with the ancient dispute upon the duration of future 
punishment. What was meant by the aionion punishments of the 
next world.'' Was the proper sense of the word eternal, or was it 
not } . . . That argument runs thus — that the ordi- 
nary construction of the word aionion, as equivalent to everlasting 
could not possibly be given up, when associated with penal misery, 
because in that case, and by the very same act, the idea of eternity 
must be abandoned as applicable to the counter bliss of paradise. 
Torment and blessedness, it was argued, punishment and beatification 
stood upon che same level; the same word it was, the word aionion^ 
which qualified the duration of either; and if eternity, in the most 
rigorous acceptation, fell away from the one idea, it must equally fall 
away from the other. Well, be it so. But that would not settle the 
question. It might be very painful to renounce a long cherished 
anticipation, but the necessity of doing so could not be received as a 
sufficient reason for adhering to the old unconditional use of the word 
aionion. The argument is — that we must retain the old sense of eternal, 
because else we lose upon one scale what we had gained upon the 
other. But what then t would be the reasonable man's retort. We 
are not to accept or to reject a new construction (if otherwise the 
more colorable,) of the word aionion, simply because the conse- 
quences might seem such, as, upon the whole, to displease us. We 
mav gain nothing; for by the new interpretation our loss may bal- 



The New Testament Usage. 59 

ance our gain, and we may prefer the old arrangement. But how- 
monstrous is all this ! We are not summoned as to a choice of two 
different arrangements that may suit different tastes, but to a grave 
question as to what is the sense and operation of the word aidnion. 
Meantime all this speculation, first and last, is 
pure nonsense. Aidnian does not mean eternal^ neither does it mean 
of limited duration. Nor would the unsettling of aidnian in its old 
use, as applied to punishment, to torment, to misery, etc., carry with 
it any necessary unsettling of the idea in its application to the beati- 
tudes of Paradise. 

What is an aibn ? The duration or cycle of existence which be- 
longs to any object, not individually of itself, but universally, in right 
of its genius. . . . Man has a Q.^r\2\n aidman life ; pos- 
sibly ranging somewhere about the period of seventy years assigned 
in the Psalms. . . . The period would in that case rep- 
resent the '''' ai'on " of the individual Tellurian ; but the " ai'on " of the 
Tellurian race would probably amount to many millions of our 
earthly years, and it would remain an unfathomable mystery, deriv- 
ing no light at all from the septuagenarian ^^ ai'on " of the individual; 
though between the two ai'ons I have no doubt that some secret link 
of connection does and must subsist, however undiscoverabie by hu- 
man sagacity. .... 

This only is discoverable, as a general tendency, that the aion, or 
generic period of evil is constantly towards a fugitive duration. 
The aion^ it is alleged, must always express the same idea, whatever 
that maybe; if it is less than eternity for the evil cases, then it must 
be less for the good ones. Doubtless the idea of an aion is in one sense 
always uniform, always the same, — viz., as a tenth or a twelfth is 
always the same. Arithmetic could not exist if any caprice or variation 
affected their ideas — a tenth is always more than an eleventh, always 
less than a ninth. But this uniformity of ratio and proi)ortion does 
not hinder but that a tenth may now represent a guinea, and the 
next moment represent a thousand guineas, llie exact amount of 
the duration expressed by an ai'on depends altogether upon the particular 
subject which yields the ai'on. It is, as I have said, a radix, and like an 
algebraic square-root or cube-root, though governed by the most 
rigorous laws of limitation, it must vary in obedience to the nature 
of the particular subject whose radix it forms." De Quincey's con- 
clusions are : 

A. That man who allows himself to infer the eternity of evil from the 
counter eternity of good, builds upon the mistake of assigning a station- 
ary and mechanic value to the idea of an ai'on, whereas the very purpose 



6o Aion — Aidnios. 

of Scripture in using the word was to evade such a value. The ivord 
is always varying; for the %'ery purpose of keeping it faithful to a spirit- 
ual identity , The period or duration of every object would ht an 
essentially variable quantity, were it not mysteriously commensurate 
to the inner nature of that object as laid open to the eyes of God. 
And thus it happens, that everything in the world possibly without a 
solitary exception, has its own separate aion ; hotu ??ianv entities^ so 
many aib?is. 

B. But if it be an excess of blindness which can overlook the .'7/^/?/(^;z 
differences amongst even neutral entities, much deeper is that blind- 
ness which overlooks tiie separate tendencies of things evil and things 
good. Naturally, all evil is fugitive and allied to death. 

C. I, separately, speaking for myself only, profoundly believe that 
the Scriptures ascribe absolute and metaphysical eternity to one sole 
being — viz., God ; and derivatively to all others according to the in- 
terest which thev can plead in God's favor. Having anchorage in 
God, innumerable entities may possibly be admitted to a partici- 
pation in dWinQaion. But what interest in the favor of God can be- 
long to falsehood, to malignity, to impurity.' To invest them with 
aidnian privileges, is, in effect, and by its results, to distrust and to 
insult the Deity. Evil would not be evil, if it had that power of self- 
subsistence which is imparted to it in supposing its aidnian life to be 
•co-eternal with that which crowns and glorifies the good."^^ 

REV. E. H. SEARS. 

Says Edmund H. Sears : " The passage has often been regarded 
as it the chief thing to be considered was the duration of the punish- 
ment of the unrighteous, over against the duration of the life of the 
righteous, and that since both are described by the same word, they 
are of like duration. That would undoubtedly be so if mere 
duration or extension by time were expressed at all, or any way in- 
volved in the contrast. But that, as I should interpret, is not the 
meaning of the original word. The element of time, as we measure 
things, does not enter into it at all. Not duration, but quality, is 
the chief thing involved in this word rendered ' eternal.' 
The word at'on and its derivatives, rendered 'eternal' and 'everlast- 
ing,' describe an economy complete in itself, and the duration must 
depend on the nature of the economy. . . . The New 

Testament, if it reveals anything, reveals the aion — the dispensation 
that lies next to this, and gathers into it the momentous results oi 
our probation in time. But what lies beyond that in the cycles of a 



55) Theological Essays, Vol. i,pp. 143-162. 



The New Testament Usas'e. 61 



'<b ' 



coming eternity, I do not believe has been revealed to the highest 
angel. Think of that endless Beyond ! If every atom of the globe 
were counted off, and every atom stood for a million years, still we 
have not approached a conception of endless duration. And yet 
sinful and fallible men afiEirm that their fellow sinners are to be given 
over to indescribable agonies through those millions of years thus re- 
peated, and even then the clocks of eternity have only struck the 
morning hour ! that the hells of pent-up anguish are to streak eternity 
with blood in lines parallel forever with the being of God ! If 
Gabriel should come and tell us that we should have a right to be- 
lieve that the history of the infinite future infolded in the bosom of 
God, had not been given to Gabriel !" ^® 

DID JESUS EMPLOY THE POPULAR PHRASEOLOGy ? 

It is often remarked that as, according to Josephus, the Jews in 
our Savior's times believed in endless punishment, Jesus must have 
taught the same doctrine, as " he employed the terms the Jews used.'* 
But this is not true, as we have shown. Christ and his apostles did 
not employ the phraseology that the Jews used to describe this doc- 
trine. As we have shown Philo used athanaton and ateleuteton mean- 
ing immortal, and interminable. He says, ®' zoe apothneskonta aet- 
kai tropon tina thanaton athanaton upomeinon kai ateleuteton^ " to live al- 
ways dying, and to undergo an immortal and interminable death." He 
also employs aidion^ but not ai'onion. ^^ Josephus says : " They, 
the Pharisees, believe ' the souls of the bad are allotted aidios eirg- 
mos, to an eternal prison, and punished with adialeiptos timoria, eternal 
retribution.'''^ In describing the doctrine of the Essenes, Josephus 
says they believe " the souls ot the bad are sent to a dark and tem- 
pestuous cavern, full of adialeiptos timoria, incessa?it punishfnefit.'"' 
But the phraseology of Jesus and the apostles is kolasin ai'onion or 
aibniou kriseos " eternal chastisement," or " eternal condemnation." 
The Jews contemporary with Jesus call retribution aidios, or adial- 
eiptos tiinoria, while the Savior calls it aibnios krisis, or kolasis aidnios, 
and the apostles olethros aibnios, everlasting destruction j and puros 
aibnios, eternal fire. Had Jesus and his apostles used the terms em- 
ployed by the Jews to whom they spake, we should be compelled to 
admit that they taught the popular doctrine. See this point further 
elucidated at the end of this volume on the word Aidios. 

"To live always dying and undergo an endless death," is the 
lani^uage of "orthodox" pulpits, and of the Greek Jews, but our 

(56)Scrmons pp. 99-102. 

(57) Univ. Expositor, vol 3,p, 446. 

(58) Univ. Expositor, vol. -;. ]■>, 437 



62 Aion — Aidnios. 

Savior and his apostles carefully avoided such horrible blasphemy as 
to charge God with being the author of so diabolical a cruelty. 

Says a learned scholar : ^ " Aidnios is a word of sparing occur- 
ence among ancient classical Greek writers; nor is it by any means 
the common term employed by them to signify eternal. On the con- 
trary, they much more frequently make use of aidios, aeion, or some 
similar mode of speech, for this purpose. . . . To me 

it appears that the Seventy, by chosing aidnios to represent olajn^ 
testify that they did not understand the Hebrew word to signify 
eternal. Had they so understood it, they would certainly have trans- 
lated it by some more decisive word; some term, which, like aidios 
is more commonly employed in Greek, to signify that which has 
neither beginning nor end." 

Let us. now allude to the other texts in the New Testament in 
which the word is applied to punishment. 

"never forgiveness ETERNAL DAMNATION." 

ft 

Matt, xii : 32, "Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it 
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this worlds neither in the world 
to come." Parallel passages: Mark iii : 29. "But he that shall 
blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never (aidna) forgiveness, 
but is in danger of eternal ( aidnion) damnation." Luke xii : 10. 
" And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall 
be forgiven him ; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy 
Ghost it shall not be forgiven." Literally, "neither in this age nor 
the coming," that is, neither in the Mosaic, nor the Christian age or 
dispensation. But then, these ages will both end, and in the dispen- 
sation of the fullness of times, or ages, all are to be redeemed, (Eph. 
i: 10.) Mark iii : 29 is the same as Matt, xii : 32. The Greek 
differs slightly, and is rendered literally, "has not forgiveness to the 
age, but is liable to age-lasting judgment." The thought of the 
Savior is, that those who should attribute his good deeds to an evil 
spirit would be so hardened that his religion would have difficulty in 
affecting them. Endless damnation is not thought of, and cannot be 
extorted from the language. 

In the New Testament the " end of the age," and " ages " is a 
common expression, referring to what has now passed. See Col. i : 
26, Heb. ix : 26, Matt, xiii : 39, 40, 49, xxiv : 3! Says Locke ^ 
" The nation of the Jews were the kingdom and people of God 

(59) Christian Examiner. Sept. 1830, pp.25, 26. 

(60) Notes on Gal. i. 



The New Testament Usage. 6^ 

whilst the law stood. And this kingdom of God, under the Mosaic 
constitution was called aim outos, this age, or as it is commonly trans- 
lated, this world. But the kingdom of God was to be under the Mes- 
siah, wherein the economy and constitution of the Jewish church, 
and the nation itself, that in opposition to Christ adhered to it, was 
to be laid aside, is in the New Testament called aion mellon^ the world 
or age to come," 

Another writer ^^ adds : *^ Why the times under the law, were 
called kronoi aidnioi, we may find reason in their jubilees, which 
were atones, " secula," or " ages," by which all the time under the law, 
was measured ; and so kronoi aidnioi\ is used, 2 Tim. i : 9. Tit. i : 
2. And so aidnes are put for the times of the law, or the jubilees, 
Luke i : 70, Acts iii : 21, i Cor. ii : 7, x : 11, Eph. iii : 9, Col. i : 26, 
Heb. ix : 26. And so God is called the rock of aidnon^ of ages, 
Isa. xxvi : 4, in the same sense that he is called the rock of Israel, 
Isa. XXX : 29, i. e. the strength and support of the Jewish state; — 
for it is of the Jews the prophet here speaks. So Exod. xxi : 6, eis 
ton aidna signifies not as we translate it, " forever," but " to the jubi- 
lee;" which will appear if we compare Lev. xxv : 39-41, and Exod. 
xxi : 2." 

Pearce ^^ in his commentary, says " Rather, neither in this age, 
nor in the age to come : /. ^., neither in this age when the law of 
Moses subsists, nor in that also, when the kingdom of heaven, which 
is at hand, shall succeed to it. The Greek aion, seems to signify 
age here, as it often does in the New Testament, (see chap, xiii : 
40; xxiv : 3; Col. i: 26; Eph. iii: 5, 21,) and according to its 
most proper signification. If this be so, then this age means the 
Jewish one, the age while their law subsisted and was in force; and 
the age to come (see Heb. vi : 5 ; Eph. ii: 7.) means that under the 
Christian dispensation." 

Wakefield ohsQTWQs: ®^ "Age, aioni j i. e., the Jewish dispensation 
which was then in being, or the Christian, which was going to be." 

Clarke : ^ " Though I follow the common translation, (Matt, 
fiii : 31, 32.) yet I am fully satisfied the meaning of the words is, 
neither in this dispensation, viz., the Jewish, nor in that which is 10 
come, the Christian. Olam ha-bo, the world to come, is a constant 
phrase for the times of the Messiah, in the Jewish writers." See 

(61) Burthog's '* Christianity, a Revealed Mystery," pp. 17, 18. Note on Rom. xvi : 25. 

(62) Notes on Matt, xii, 31, 32, 

(63) Com, in loco. 
{64) Idem. 



6 4 Aid 71 — Aid?iio 

also Hammond, Rosenmuller. etc.. ®^. Take Hebrews ix : 26. as 
an example. ** For then must he (Christ) often have suffered since 
the foundation of the world {kosmos, literal world) but now once in 
tJu e?id of the world {aionon, age) hath he appeared to put awav sin 
by the sacrifice of himself." ^Vhat world was at its end when Christ 
appeared ? Indubitably the Jewish age. The world or age to 
come (aion) must be the Christian dispensation, as in i Cor. x: 11^ 
where Paul says that upon him and his contemporaries " the ends 
of the world are come." 

These passages state m strong language the heinous nature of the 
sin referred to. The age or world to come is not beyond the 
grave, but it is the Christian dispensation. It had a beginning 
eighteen centuries ago. and it will end when Jesus delivers the king- 
dom to God. the Father, (i Cor. xv). 

EVERLASTING FIRE. 

Matt, xviii : S. " ^\Tierefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee^ 
cut them off. and cast them from thee : it is better for thee to enter 
into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands, or two feet, 
to be cast into everlasting fire.'' Matt, xxv : 41 uses the same phra- 
seolog}^ "The everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his 
angels." Also Jude 7. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the 
cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornica- 
tion, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suf- 
fering the vengeance of eternal fire." 

It is better to enter into the Christian life maimed, that is 
deprived of some social advantage comparable to an eye, foot, or 
hand, than to keep all worldly advantages, and suffer the penalty of 
rejecting Christ, typified by fire, is the meaning of Matt, xviii : 8 ; 
and Jude 7 teaches that Sodom and Gomorrah are an example ot 
eternal fire. But that fire has expired. That the fire referred to is 
not endless is shown by the use of the term in the Bible. " God is 
a consuming fire," (Heb. xii : 29,) but it is a *' Refiner's fire." (Mai. 
iii : 2-3.) It consumes the evil and refines away the dross of error 
and sin. This corroborates the meaning we have shown to belong 
to the word expressive of the fire's duration. But whatever may 
be the purpose of the fire, it is not endless, it is ai'ojiian. Benson ^ 
well savs: " The fire which consumed Sodom, <S:c., might be called 
eternal, as it burned till it had utterly consumed them, beyond the 

(65) Paige's Selections. 

(66) Paige Com. Vol. vi : p. 398. 



The New Testament Usage. 65 

possibility of their being inhabited or rebuilt. But the word will have 
a yet more emphatical meaning, if (as several authors affirm) that 
fire continued to burn a long while." 

EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION. 

2 Thess. 1:9. " Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 

Everlasting destruction, olethron aidnion^ does not signify remedi- 
less ruin, but long banishment from God s presence. This is what 
sin does for the soul. Oleihros is not annihilation, but desolation. 
It is found but four times in the New Testament, i Thess. v : 3, i 
Cor. V : 5, I Tim. vi : 9. The passage in i Cor. shows us how it is used: 
" deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the fiesh, that the 
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus''' The destruction 
here is not final — it is conditional to the saving of the spirit. Ever- 
lasting destruction is equivalent to prolonged desolation. 

THE BLACKNESS OF DARKNESS FOREVER. 

2 Pet. ii : 17. "These are wells without water, clouds that are 
carried with a tempest ; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved 
forever." Jude 13. '' Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their 
own f hame ; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of 
darkness forever." " To whom is always reserved the blackness of 
darkness," would be a correct paraphrase of this language. Those 
referred to are trees that bear no fruit, clouds that yield no water, 
foaming waves, stars that give no light. Endless duration was not 
thought of by either Peter or Jude. Indefinite duration, ages, is the 
utmost meaning of eis aiona^ which is spurious in 2 Peter ii : 17, but 
genuine in Jude 13. The literal meaning is, for an age. Eternity 
cannot be extorted from the phrase. 

FOREVER AND EVER. 

Heb. vi : 2. "The doctrine of the aionian, (ai'onion) judgment.'* 
We make no special explanation of this passage. Whether the judg- 
ment of that age or the age to come, the Christian is meant, matters 
not. "The judgment of the age " is the full force of the phrase 
aionion judgment. Rev. xiv : 11. "And the smoke of their tor- 
ment ascendeth w"^ forever and ever : and they have no rest day nor 
night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth 
the mark of his name." xix : 3. " And her smoke rose up forever 
and ever!" x\ : 10. " And the devil that deceived them was cast 



66 Aion — Aionios. 

into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false 
prophet are^ and shall be tormented ^2.s 2Ci\dLvi\'^-\\. forever and ever '"* 
Attempts have been made to show that these reduplications, if no 
other forms of the word convey the idea of eternity. But the literal 
meaning of aidnas aid?ton, in the first text above, is ages of ages, and of 
ious aidnas to?i aidnon, in the other two, is the ages of the ages. It 
is thus rendered in the Emphatic Diaglot. It is perfectly manifest 
to the commonest mind that if one age is limited, no number can be 
unlimited. Ages of ages is an intense expression of long duration, 
and if the woxdaion should be eternity, " eternities of eternities " ought 
to be the translation, an expression too absurd to require comment. 
If aton means eternity, any number of reduplications would weaken 
it. But while ages of ages is proper enough, eternity of eternities 
would be ridiculous. On this phraseology Sir Isaac Newton ^"^ says : 
*' The ascending of the smoke of any burning tiling forever and ever ^ 
is put for the continuation of a conquered people under the misery 
of perpetual subjection and slavery." The thought of eternal dura- 
tion was not in the mind of Jesus or his apostles in any of these 
texts, but long duration, to be determined by the subject. 

THE SPIRITS IN PRISON. 

An illuminating side-light is thrown on this subject by commen- 
tators on I Pet. iii, 18-20, in which Christ is said to have 
"preached unto the spirits in prison." Alford says our Lord "did 
preach salvation in fact, to the disembodied spirits, etc." Tayler 
Lewis — ^® " There was a work of Christ in Hades, he makes procla- 
mation ^ ekeruxen' in Hades to those who are there in ward. This 
interpretation, which was almost universally adopted by the early 
Christian Church, etc." Professor Huidekoper. ^^ " In the second 
and third centuries every branch and division of Christians believed 
that Christ preached to the departed." Dietelmair "^^ says this 
doctrine '''in omni coetu Christiano creditutn.''^ Why preach salva- 
tion to souls whose doom was fixed for eternity 1 iVnd how could 
Christians believe in that doctrine and at the same time give the 
aionian words the meaning of eternal duration .? 

AION MEANS AN EON, ^ON OR AGE. 

It is a pity that the noun {aion) has not always been rendered by 
the English word eon, or aeon, and the adjective by eonian or aioni- 

(^7) Daniel and Rev. London Ed. 1733, p. 18. 

(68) T.ange on Eccl.. 130. 

(6g) Mission to the Underworld, pp. 51 52. 

(701 Historia Dosmatis de Descensu Christi ad Inferos, chs. iv and vi. 



The Neiv Testament Usage. 67 

an; then all confusion would have been avoided. Webster's Una- 
bridged, defines it as meaning a space or period of time, an era, 
epoch, dispensation, or cycle, etc. He also gives it the sense of 
eternity, but no one could have misunderstood, had it been thus 
rendered. Suppose our translation read " What shall be the sign 
of thy coming, and of the end of the aeon .'" " The smoke of their 
torment shall ascend for aeons of aeons." " These shall go away 
into aionian chastisement, etc." The idea of eternity would not 
be found in the noun, nor of endless duration in the adjective, and 
tiie New Testament would be read as its authors intended. 

Let the reader now recall the usage as we have presented it, 
and then reflect that all forms of the word are applied to punish- 
ment only fourteen times in the entire New Testament, and ask 
himself the question, Is it possible that so momentous a doctrine 
as this is only stated so small a number of times in divine revela- 
tion ? If it has the sense of limited duration, this is consistent 
enough, for then it will be classed with the other terms that des- 
cribe the Divine judgments. The fact that so many of those who 
speak or write never employ it at all, and that all of them together 
use it but fourteen times is a demonstration that He who has made 
known his will, and who would of all things have revealed so appall- 
ing a fate as endless woe, if he had it in preparation, has no such 
doom in store for immortal souls. 

We now pass to corroborate these positions by consulting the 
views of those in the first centuries of the Christian Church, who 
obtained their opimions directly or indirectly from the apostles them- 
selves. 



5.— THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 

Nothing can cast a backward illumination on the New Testament, 
and teach us the full meaning of our controverted words, as Jesus 
and the apostles used them, so well as the language of the Christian 
fathers and the early church. We will therefore consult those who 
were perfectly familiar with the Greek tongue, and who passed the 
word along down the ages, from the apostles to their successors, for 
more than five hundred years. 

TAYLER LEWIS. 

Prof. Tayler Lewis '^ in the course of learned disquisitions on 

^71) Lang^'^s Genesis, pp. 135 144, and Eccle«ii«st<;s pp. 44, 51. 



68 Aion — Atonios. 

the meaning of the Olamic and Aionian words of the Bible, refers 
to the oldest version of the New Testament, the Syriac, or the 
Peshito, and tells us how these words are rendered in this first form 
of the New Testament : " So is it ever in the old Syriac version 
where the one rendering is still more unmistakably clear. These 
shall go into the pain of the Olaui {aion) (the world to come), and 
these to the life of the Olam {ai'ori) (the world to come)." He re- 
fers to Matt, xix : i6 ; ]\Iark X : 17; Luke xviii : 18; John iii : 15; 
Acts xiii : 46; i Tim. vi: 12, in which aidnios is rendered belonging 
to the ola?n, or world to come. Eternal life, in our version, the 
words in Matt, xxv : 46, are rendered in the Peshito " the life of the 
world to come.'' 

We quote this not to endorse, but to show that one of the best of 
modern critics testifies that the earliest New Testament version did 
not employ endless as the meaning of the word. Of Prof. Lewis 
Dr. Beecher writes, "^^ " We are not to suppose that so eminent 
an Orthodox divine says these things in support of Universalism, a 
system whicli he decidedly and earnestly rejects." ' 

THE apostles' CREED. 

The Apostles' Creed is the earliest Christian formula. The idea 
of endless torment is not hinted. '' I believe in God, the Father 
Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, ^^ho 
was born of the Virojin Marv bv the Holv Ghost, was crucified under 
Pontius Pilate, buried, rose from the dead on the third day, ascended 
to the heavens, and sits on the right hand of the Father; whence he 
will come, to judge the living ?nd the dcid : and in the Holy Spirit; 
the holy church; the remission of sin.-; pnd ihe resurrection of the 
body," "^^ 

IGNATIUS. 

Our first reference to the patristic writers shall be to Ignatius (A. 
D. 115) who says the reward of piety " is incorruptibility and eternal 
life," "love incorruptible and perpetual life." Here the aionian life 
is strengthened by " incorruptible," showing that the word aionion 
alone was in his mind unequal to the task of expressing endless du- 
ration. He says, also, that Jesus " was manifested to the ages " {toi: 
ai'osiri). Of course he intended to use no such ridiculous expression 
as " to the eternities." 

SIBYLLINE ORACLES. 

The Sibylline Oracles — dated variouslv by different writers from 

(72) Christian Union. 

(73) Murdoch's Mosheim, vol. i. p. 06. 



The Christian Fathers. 69 

500 B. C, to 150 A. D., teach aionian suffering, and universal salvation 
beyond, showing how the word was then understood. The prophetess 
who professes to write the Oracles describes the saints as petitioning 
God for the salvation of the damned. Thus entreated she says 
" God will deliver them from the devouring hre and eternal gnashing 
of teeth." 

JUSTIN MARTYR. 

Justin Martyr, A. D-, 140^ 162, taught everlasting suffering, and an- 
nihilation afterwards. The wicked " are tormented as long as God 
wills that they should exist and be tormented. .... 

Souls both suffer punishment and die." '^^ He uses the expression 
aperanton aidna. '^ " The wicked will be punished with everlasting 
punishment, and not for a thousand years as Plato asserted." Here 
punishment is announced as limited. This is evident from the fact 
that Justin Martyr taught the annihilation of the wicked ; they are 
to be " tormented world ivithout end,''"' and then annihilated. 

IREN^US. 

Irenseus "^^ says, "the unjust shall be sent into inextinguishable 
and eternal fire," and yet he taught that the wicked are to be anni- 
hilated : '^'^ " When it is necessary that the soul should no longer 
exist, the vital spirit leaves it, and the soul is no more, but returns 
thither whence it was taken." Dr. Beecher pertinently observes : '^^ 
"What then are the facts as to Irenaeus.'' Since he has been canon- 
ized as a saint, and since he stood in such close connection with 
Polycarp and with John the apostle, there has been a very great re- 
luctance to admit the real facts of the case. Massuetus has em- 
ployed much sophistry in endeavoring to hide them. Nevertheless, 
as we shall clearly show hereafter, they are incontrovertibly these : 
that he taught a final restitution of all things to unity and order by 
the annihilation of all the finally impenitent. Express statements of 
his in his creed, and in a fragment referred to by Prof. Schaff, on 
universal restoration, '^^ and in other parts of his great work against 
the Gnostics, prove this beyond all possibility of refutation. The 
inference from this is plain. He did not understand aidnios in the 
sense of eternal ; but in the sense claimed by Prof. Lewis, that is, per- 
taining to the world to come." These are his words : " Christ will 

(74) Dialog, cum Tryphone pp. 222 — 3 

(75) Apol. Prim, cxxvii. 
(76^ Adv. Her. p v. cap. 27. 

(77) Ibid. 

(78) Christian Union. 

(79) Hist. Chr. Ch. 

1 



70 Aoin — Aidnios. 

do away with all evil, and make an end of all impurities." He 
further says ®° that certain persons "shall not receive from him 
(the Creator) length of days forever and ever." Thus the word de- 
noted limited duration in his time, A. D, 170, 200. 

HERMOGENES. 

So Hermogenes (A. D. 200) who believed that all sinful beings 
will finally cease to be, must have understood Christ as applying 
ai'onion to punishment in the sense of limited duration, or he would 
not have believed in annihilation, and have been a Christian. 

ORIGEN AND THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA. 

Origen used the expressions ' everlasting fire " and " everlasting 
punishment" to express his idea of the duration of punishment. 
Yet he believed that in all cases sin and suffering would cease and 
be followed by salvation. He was the most learned man of his time^ 
and his example proves that ai'onion did not mean endless at the 
time he wrote, A. D. 200 — 253. Dr. Beecher says ®^ "As an in- 
troduction to his system of theology, he states certain great facts as 
a creed believed by all the church. In these he states the doctrine of 
future retributon as ai'onion life, and ai'onion punishment, using the 
words of Christ. Now, if Origen understood ai'onion as meaning 
strictly eternal, then to pursue such a course would involve him in 
gross and palpable self-contradiction. But no one can hide the facts 
of the case. After setting forth the creed of the church as already 
stated, including ai'onion punishment, he forthwith proceeds, with 
elaborate reasoning, again and again to prove the doctrine of uni- 
versal restoration. The conclusion from these facts is obvious : 
Origen did not understand aidnios as meaning eternal, but rather as 
meaning pertaining to the world to come. . . . Two 
great facts stand out on the page of ecclesiastical history. One that 
the first system of Christian theology was composed and issued by 
Origen in the year 230 after Christ, of which a fundamental and es- 
sential element was the doctrine of the universal restoration of all 
fallen beings to their original holiness and union with God. The 
second is that after the lapse of a little more than three centuries, in 
the year 544, this doctrine was for th.Q first time condemned and anath- 
ematized SiS heretical. This was done, not in the general council, but 
in a local council called by the Patriarch Mennos at Constantinople, 
by the order of Justinian. During all this long interval, the opin- 
ions of Origen and his various writings were an element of power in 

(80) Schaff, vol. ii, pp 504, 73. 
(8i) Christian Union. 



The Christiaji Fathe7's. 71 

the whole Christian world. For a long time he stood high as the 
greatest luminary of the Christian world. He gave an impulse to 
the leading spirits of subsequent ages and was honored by them as 
their greatest benefactor. At last, after all his scholars were dead, 
in the remote age of Justinian, he was anathematized as a heretic of 
the worst kind. The same also was done with respect to Theodore 
of Mopsuestia, of the Antiochian school, who held the doctrine of 
universal restitution on a different basis. This, too, was done long 
after he was dead, in the year 553. From and after this point the 
doctrine of future eternal punishment reigned with undisputed sway 
during the middle ages that preceded the Reformation. What, then, 
was the state of facts as to the leading theological schools of the 
Christian world in the age of Origen and some centuries after.? It 
was, in brief, this: There were at least six theological schools in the 
church at large. Of these six schools, one, and only one, was de- 
cidedly and earnestly in favor of the doctrine of future eternal pun- 
ishment. One was in favor of the annihilation of the wicked. Two 
were in favor of the doctrine of universal restoration on the princi- 
ples of Origen, and two in favor of universal restoration on the 
principles of Theodore of Mopsuestia. 

" It is also true that the prominent defenders of the doctrine of uni- 
versal restoration were decided believers in the divinity of Christ, in 
the trinity, in the incarnation and atonement, and in the great Chris- 
tian doctrine of regeneration ; and were, in piety, devotion, Chris- 
tian activity and missionary enterprise, as well as in learning and 
intellectual power and attainments, inferior to none in the best ages 
of the church, and were greatly superior to those by whom, in after 
ages, they were condemned and anathematized. 

"It is also true that the arguments by which they defended their 
views were never fairly stated and answered. Indeed, they were 
never stated at all. They may admit of a thorough answer and 
refutation, but even if so, they were not condemned and anathe- 
matized on any such grounds, but simply in obedience to the arbi- 
trary mandates of Justinian, whose final arguments were deposition 
and banishment for those ivho refused to do his will. 

" Consider, now, who Theodore of Mospuestia was, not as viewed 
by a slavish packed council, met to execute the will of a Byzantine 
despot, but by one of the most eminent evangelical scholars of (ier- 
many, Dorner. Of him he says : " Theodore of Mopsuestia was 
the crown and climax of the school of Antioch. The compass of 
his learning, his acuteness, and, as we must suppose, also, the lt)rce 
of his personal character, conjoined with his labors through many 



72 Aion — Aidnios. 

years, as a teacher both of churches and of young and tal- 
ented disciples, and as a prolific writer, gained for him the title of 
Magister Orientis. He labored on uninterruptedly till his death in 
the year 427, and was regarded with an appreciation the more 
widely extended as he was the first Oriental theologian of his 
time."^^ 

Mosheim says of Origen : " Origen possessed every excellence 
that can adorn the Christian character ; uncommon piety from his 
very childhood ; astonishing devotedness to that most holy religion 
which he professed ; unequaled perseverence in labors and toils for 
the advancement of the Christian cause; untiring zeal for the Church 
and for the extension of Christianity ; an elevation of soul which 
placed him above all ordinary desires or fears ; a most permanent 
contempt of wealth, honor, pleasures, and of death itself; the purest 
trust in the Lord Jesus , for whose sake, when he was old and op- 
pressed with ills of every kind, he patiently and perseveringly en- 
dured the severest sufferings. It is not strange, therefore, that he 
was held in so high estimation, botlr while he lived and after death. 
Certainly if any man deserves to stand first in the catalogue of saints 
and martyrs, and to be annually held up as an example to Chris- 
tians, this is the man, for, except the apostles of Jesus Christ and 
their companions, I know of no one, among all those enrolled and 
honored as saints, who excelled him in virtue and holiness." ^^ 

How could universal salvation have been the prevailing doctrine 
in that age of the church unless the word applied to punishment in 
Matt. XXV ; 46 was understood by Christians to mean limited dura- 
tion ? 

The fact that Origen and others taught an aionian punishment after 
deaths and salvation beyond if ^ demonstrates thit in Origen s time the 
word had not the meaning of endless^ but did mean at that date, indefi- 
nite or limited dicration. 

Readers curious to look up this point of the state of opinion dur- 
ing the centuries following the age of Origen, can refer to the au- 
thorities cited below.®* 

(82) Doctrine of Person of Christ, Div. 2, vol. i, p. 50, Eninburgh. 

(83) Hist. Com. on Chris, before Constantine, vol. ii, p. 149. 

(84) Assemanni Bib, Orient, vol. iii. parti, pp. 223-4, 324. — Doderlein, Inst. Theol. Christ, vol. 
ii. pp. 200-1. — Jacobi, Bohn's Edition. — Neander's Hist. Christian Dogmas. — Guericke, Shedd's 
Tranblation. pp. 308,349. — Neander Torrey's Translation, vol. ii. p. 251-2. — Dorner' s Hist. 
Person of Christ, 2 vol. pp. 28, 30, 50. — Dr. Schaff Hist. Christ Ch. vol. ii. pp. 731, 504. — Gieseler, 
vo'. i. p. 370. — Kurz, 1. Text Book Christ. Hist. p. 137-212. — Hagenbach, quoting from Augustine 
Civitate Dei, liber xxi. chap xvi. 

Note. — Doderlein says : * The most learned in the early church, cherished and defended 
with most zeal the hope of a final cess ition of torments. These are his words: Quanto quis 
a'tiiis eruditione in antiquitate Christianna eminuit,tanto magis spem finiendorum olim cruciatuum 
aluit atque defendit. 

*Ir.st. Theol. Chris, vol. ii. p. 199, 



The Christian Fathers. 73 

EUSEBIUS. 

Eusebius (A. D. 300-25) describes the darkness preceding crea- 
tion thus : ^^ " These for a long time had no limit," they continued 
"for 3. long eternity:''' dia polun aidna. To say thai darkness that 
ended with the creation endured for a long eternity^ would be absurd. 

GREGORY NYSSEN, 

Gregory Nyssen (A. D. 370-3) proves that the word had the 
meaning of limited duration in his day. He says ^® "Whoever 
considers the divine power w ill plainly perceive that it is able at 
length to restore by 7?ieans of the everlasting purgation and expiatory 
suferings, those who have gone even to this extremity of wicked- 
ness." Thus everlasting punishment and salvation beyond was 
taught in the rouii.]] ceniQiy. 

AUGUSTINE. 

Augustine (A. D. 400-430) was the first known to argue that 
uionios signified endless. He at first maintained that it always meant 
thus, but at length abandoned that ground, and only claimed that 
it had that meaning sometimes. He " was very imperfectly ac- 
quainted with the Greek language.' 



" 87 



AVITUS. 



A. D. 410 Avitus brought to Spain, from Jerome, in Palestine, a 
translation oT Origen, and taught that punishments are not endless ; 
for " though they are called everlasting, yet that word in the original 
Greek does not, according to its etymology and frequent use, signify 
endless, but answers only to the duration of an age. 



" 88 



GENERAL USAGE OF THE FATHERS. 

In fact, every Universalist and every Annihilationist among the 
fathers of the early church is a standing witness testifying that the 
word was understood as we claim, in their day. Believers in the 
Bible, accepting its utterances implicitly as truth, how could they 

(85) History vol. i. p. 173. 

(86) De Infantibus,p. 173. 

(87) Ancient Hist. Univ. 

(88) Hieronymi Epist. 



74 Aton — Aidnios. 

be Universalists or Annihilationists with the Greek Bible before 
them, and ai'onion punishment taught there, unless they gave to the 
word thus used the meaning of limited duration ? Accordingly, be- 
sides those alluded to above, we appeal to those ancient Univer- 
salists, the Basilidians (A. D. 130), the Carpocratians (A. D. 140), 
Clemens Alexandrinus (A. D, 190), Gregory Thaumaturgus (A. D. 
220-50), Ambrose (A. D. 250), Titus of Bostra (A. D. 340-70)^ 
Didymus the Blind (A. D. 550-90), Diodore of Tarsus (A. D. 370- 
90), Isidore of Alexandria (A. D. 370-400), Jerome (A. D. 380-410) 
Palladius of Gallatia (A. D. 400), Theodore of Mopsuestia (A. D. 
380-428), and others, not one of whom could have been a Univer- 
salist unless he ascribed to this word the sense of limited duration. 
To most of them Greek was as familiar as English is to us. 

THE EMPEROR JUSTINIAN. 

The Emperor Justinian (A. D. 540), in calling the celebrated 
local council which assembled in 544, addressed his edict to Men- 
nos, Patriarch of Constantinople, and elaborately argued against 
the doctrines he had determined should be condemned. He does 
not say, in defining the Catholic doctrine at that time "We believe 
in aionioji punishment," for that was just what the Universalist, 
Origen himself taught. Nor does he say, " The word ai'onion has 
been misunderstood, it denotes endless duration," as he would have 
said had there been , such a disagreement. But, writing in Greek 
with all the words of that copious speech from which to choose, he 
says, " The holy church of Christ teaches an endless aibfiios (ate- 
LEUTETOS aidnios) life to the righteous, and endless {ateleuietos) pun- 
ishment to the wicked." Aidnios was not enough in his judgment to- 
denote endless duration, and he employed ateleuietos. This demon- 
strates that even as late as A. D. 540 aidnios meant limited duration, 
and required an added word to impart to it the force of endless du- 
ration. 

BELIEVERS IN ANNIHILATION AND IN UNIVERSAL SALVATION AP- 
PLIED THE WORD TO PUNISHMENT. 

Thus Ignatius, Polycarp, Hermas, Justin Martyr, Irenoeus, Hyp- 
polytus, Justinian, and others, (from A. D. 115 to A. D. 544) use 
the word ai'onion to define punishment. And yet, some of these 
taught that decay out of conscious existence is the natural destiny 



The Christian Fathers. 75 

of men, from which some only are saved by God's grace. Previous 
CO this decay or extinction of being, they held that men experience 
aidnion punishment. The aidnion punishment is not extinction of 
being, for that was the soul's natural destiny. The punishment is 
not endless, for it ceases when decay ensues. And yet they taught 
aidnion punishment to be succeeded by extinction. It is not endless 
for it ceases. Let us illustrate: Justin Martyr says " Souls suffer 
aidnion punishment and die." The punishment is in the future 
world, but it concludes with extinction, and yet it is aidnion. A. D. 
^AfO.,aidnion required ateleutetos prefixed to convey the idea of endless 
duration. 

OLYMPIODORUS. 

Olympiodorus (sixth century) is quoted by Dr. Beecher ®® as 
saying, " When aidnios is used in reference to a period which, by 
assumption, is infinite and unbounded, it raQdiUs eternal \ but when 
used in reference to times or things limited, the sense is limited to 
them." 

THE FIRST SIX CENTURIES. 

Hence the word did not mean endless duration among the early 
Christians for about six centuries after Christ. To say that any one 
who contradicts these men is correct, and that they did not know 
the meaning of the word, is like saying that an Australian, twelve 
hundred years hence, will be better able to give an accurate defini- 
tion of English words in common use to-day than we are ourselves. 
These ancients could not be mistaken, and the fact that they re- 
quired qualifying words to give aidnioji the sense of endless duration 
— that they used it to describe punishment when they believed in 
the annihilation of the wicked, or in their restoration subsequent to 
aidnion punishment, irrefragably demonstrates that the word had not 
the meaning of endless to them, and if not to them, then it must 
have been utterly destitute of it. 

The uniform usage of these words by the early Church demon- 
strates that they signified temporal duration. 

(89) Christian Union. 



CONCLUSION. 

Many sensible people will, with propriety, say, " Why all this labor 
to establish the meaning 01 one word?" And the author confesses 
that such a labor should be unnecessary. Men ought to refuse to credit 
such a doctrine as that of endless punishment on higher grounds than 
those of verbal definitions. Reverence, not to say respect, for God, 
the fact that he is the Father of mankind, should cause all to reject 
the doctrine of endless torment, though the weight of argument 
were a thousand fold to one in favor of the popular definition of 
this word. But there are many who disregard the moral argum.ent 
against the doctrine, which is unanswerable; who crush under the 
noblest instincts of the heart and soul, which plead, trumpet-tongued, 
against that horrible nightmare of doubt and unbelief; who cling 
to the mere letter of the word which kills, and ignore the spirit 
which gives life ; who insist that all the voices of reason and senti- 
ment should be disregarded because the Bible declares the doctrine 
of endless punishment for sinners. It is for such that these facts have 
been gathered, and this essay written, that no shrednor vestige even of 
verbal probability should exist to mislead the mind, and so seem to 
sanction the doctrine that defames God and distresses man ; that it 
might be seen that the letter and the spirit of the word agree, and 
are in perfect accord with the dictates of reason, the instincts of the 
heart, and the impulses of the soul, in rejecting the worst falsehood, 
the foulest of all the brood of error, the darkest defamation of the 
dear God's character that ever yet was invented, the monstrous false- 
hood that represents him as consigning the souls he has created in 
his own image to interminable torment. The word under examina- 
tion is the foundation stone of that evil structure. 

Thus it has appeared as the result of this discussion that 

1. There is nothing in the Etymology of the word warranting the 
erroneous view of it. 

2. The definitions of Lexicographers uniformly given not only 
allow but compel the view we have advocated. 

3. Greek writers before and at the time the Septuagint was made, 
always gave the word the sense of limited duration. 

4. Such is the general usage in the Old Testament. 



The Christian Fathejs. *j>j 

5. The Jewish Greek writers at the time of Christ ascribed to it 
limited duration. 

6. The New Testament thus employs it. 

7. The Christian Fathers for centuries after Christ thus under- 
stood it. 

Hence it follows that the readers of the Bible are under the most 
imperative obligations to understand the word in all cases as denot- 
ing limited duration, unless the subject treated, or other qualifying 
words compel them to understand it differently. There is nothing 
in the Derivation, Lexicography or Usage of the word to warrant us- 
in understanding it to convey the thought of endless duration. 

If our positions are well taken the Bible does not teach the doctrine 
of endless torment, for it will be admitted that if this word does not 
teach it, it cannot be found in the Bible. 



APPENDIX. 



AIDIOS. 



AN' IMPORTANT WORD CONSIDERED. 

There is but one Greek word besides ai'onios rendered everlasting. 
and applied to punishment, in the Xew Testament, and that is the 
Avord aidios found in Jude 6 : " And the angels which kept not their 
first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserv^ed in <rj7^r/«i-/- 
/«^ chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." 
This word is found in but one other place in the Xew Testament, 
VIZ. Rom. i : 20 : " For the invisible things 'of him from the crea- 
tion of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things 
that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." 

Xow it is admited that this word among the Greeks had the sense 
of eternal, and should be understood as having that meaning wher- 
ever found, unless by express limitation it is shorn of its proper 
meanins:. It is further admitted that had aidios occurred where 
aidnios does, there would be no escape from the conclusion that the 
Xew Testament teaches Endless Punishment. It is further admitted 
that the word is here used in the exact sense of ai'onios^ as is seen in 
the succeeding verse : " Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities 
about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, 
and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering 
the vengeance of eternal ^x^^'' That is to say, the '' aidios"" chains 
in verse 6 are '^ even as" durable as the ^'' aidnion fire" in verse 7. 
"WTiich word modifies the other ? 

1. The construction of the language shows that the latter word 
limits the former. The aidios chains are even as the aionion fire. 
As if one should say " I have been infinitely troubled, I have been 
vexed for an hour," or " He is an endless talker, he can talk five 
hours on a stretch." X'ow while "infinitely" and *" endless" con- 
vey the sense of unlimited, they are both limited by what follows» 
as aidios^ eternal, is limited by azaniosy indefinitely long. 

2. That this is the correct exegesis is evident from still another 
limitation of the word. " The angels - - - he hath reserved in ever- 
lasting chains unto the judgment of the great day.'' Had Jude said 
that the angels are held in aidios chains, and stopped there, not limit- 



Appendix. 79 

ing the word, we should not dare deny that he taught their eternal 
imprisonment. But -when he limits the duration by aidnion and then 
■expressly states that it is only unto a certain date, we understand that 
the imprisonment will terminate, even though we find applied to it 
a word that intrinsically signifies eternal duration, and that was used 
by the Greeks to convey the idea of eternity, and was attached to 
punishment by the Greek Jews of our Savior's times, to describe 
endless punishment, in which they were believers. 

But observe, while this word aidios was in universal use among the 
Greek Jews of our Savior's day, to convey the idea of eternal du- 
ration, and was used by them to teach endless punishment, he never 
allowed himselt to use it in connection with punishment, nor did any 
of his disciples but one, and he but once, and then carefully and 
expressly limited its meaning. Can demonstration go further than 
this to show that Jesus carefully avoided the phraseology by which 
his contemporaries described the doctrine of endless punishment 1 
He never employed it. What ground then is there for saying tha: 
he adopted the language of his day on this subject .'' Their language 
was aidios timoria^ endless torment. His language was aionion kolasi7u 
age-lasting correction. They described unending ruin, he, discipline, 
resulting in reformation. 



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